Bianca's Soul
by Margo McKnew
Summary: Nico di Angelo leads Hazel and Will on a quest to save the person that Bianca's soul has been reincarnated into. On the way, they encounter (and accidentally maim) a mortal teen with mad tech skills. Nico's closest relationships will be explored/tested. Has elements of the Kane Chronicles.
1. My fate is hijacked

There's not much of a difference between magical and physical, as far as I can tell. When Will Solace magically heals a demigod, they're physically patched up. When Nico magically summons the undead, they physically break through the ground. And when Hazel magically ripped the Mist off my eyeballs, it physically hurt like hell. Or... It hurt like Hades? Pluto?

You know what? Screw it, I'm not going to bother with their half-ancient cuss supplements. It's a pain in the ass, not a pain in the podex. When I'm yelling at people, I'm going to say "go die in a hole, you bastard," not "erre es korakas." What's the point of doing that? Is it some kind of cultural thing? Well, I'm not a part of their culture! I'm not one of them!

Ugh. If I'm going to write this down clearly, I'll need to start at the beginning. So, first off, I'm mortal. One hundred percent human. That should stop any devious immortals from reading any further. Because, obviously, I'm a puny, powerless, very _uninteresting_ ant in comparison. Damn, it's been hard to wrap my head around all this. At least my hours of experience playing Mythomagic Online have finally paid off. I can tell Chiron from Charon and Hera from Hades. In fact, I was playing Mythomagic Online and battling mythological beasts only one hour before I was at risk of being eaten by those same mythological beasts. What sucks is that I could've avoided all that deadly peril. I blame it on Nico. One of these days, he's going to be acting all sexy and I'm just going to get distracted and walk into a freakin' manticore.

The first time I saw Nico di Angelo, I was near a balcony in the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops, Las Vegas. Pictures do a better job of describing the Forum Shops, but they're something of a cross between a mall and a golden godly palace. There's Rome-inspired artwork all around, from the intricate frescoes on the ceiling to the giant statues and columns. I'd been on my stone bench for the better part of an hour, just seeing how long it would take before the Caesar's Palace tech geeks noticed that I'd hacked into the company's Wi-Fi. This part of the Forum was quiet, had a great view of the Roman-style wall art and giant statues, and was close to a store for 1940's and 50's style dresses. Every so often, I'd look up from my game to see people going into the store. An old lady and her daughter... A trio of fashionistas... A cute teenaged couple... Holy crap. That was a very good-looking couple. I tore my attention away from my laptop.

The girl had a perfect dark complexion, a far cry from my acne-sprinkled paleness, accompanied by a fluff of curly hair and - did I see that right? - golden eyes. It was the boy that really caught my attention. He was dressed in all black, from his shoes to his tight black t-shirt, which revealed a form that was muscled and fit without being bulging or hulk-like. His hair was black and his skin was almost inhumanly pale. His mouth wore a slight playful grin as the girl excitedly led him into the store.

Before that moment, I wasn't sure if pale, shaggy-haired guys dressed in black were my type. Apparently they were; I'd reflexively pulled out my phone and was about to embarrass myself by fangirlishly taking his picture. Before that could happen, they'd already disappeared into the 40's shop.

What. The. Hell.

What just happened? I don't usually freak out over people, even if they're some mind-shatteringly gorgeous guy. And yet, there I was, nearly falling off the stone bench in a fluff of snack bags and crumbs. I craned my neck, trying to see something more than the tops of their heads through the storefront's wide windows. No luck. I glanced back down at my laptop, wondering whether I should keep trying to beat the Mythomagic Online's highest scorer (ExplodeyAwesomepants30) when my mind was made up for me. I was kicked off of the Wi-Fi. _Well_ , I thought. _They probably won't notice if I follow them for a little while._

Yes, that was a stupid, slightly stalker-y thing to think. No, it didn't stop me from getting up and walking into a forest of classy dresses.

* * *

 **Nico's POV**

"We should probably get going soon, Hazel," I said. We'd been wandering the Forum Shops for almost two hours, since our meeting with the Sphinx wasn't until noon. Will had separated from us a while ago to see if he could find the shrine to Apollo that was supposed to be in these Shops. Just now, he sent us an Iris-message and said to meet him outside of the Bettie Page store, a place that sold 1940's and 50's style dresses. He wasn't there when we showed up, so Hazel decided to poke around inside the shop, just to see how the modern era was remembering the decade she'd died in.

"All right," said Hazel. "Do you see him yet?"

I looked back at the store's entrance. An old lady was asking a store employee about prices. An pale brunette stood in a corner with a weird look on her face. No sign of Will. "Nope," I told Hazel. "But if he doesn't get here soon, I'm going after him."

Hazel glanced up at me, smiling. "You're worried about him," she said.

"I want my jacket back," I said, but I was smiling too.

"Ha," she said. Hazel looked like she was going to say more, but she caught sight of a screen displaying a scantily-clad girl from the the 50's. She quickly looked away, scandalized.

"That's still pretty mild, compared to the stuff outside," I reminded her.

"Yeah, I know," said Hazel. "Has Las Vegas always been this bad?"

My face settled into a frown as I bit back a sharp comment. I don't remember that, Hazel. I was imprisoned for seventy years in this town. I wasn't exactly a sightseer. Hazel, realizing what she'd done, had "sorry" written all over her face. I managed to stop frowning, because I wasn't angry at Hazel, not really. I was angry at having to be here in the first place. I was pissed off at the possibility that the Sphinx might've brought us to Vegas for absolutely nothing. But, for the Sphinx's sake, I hoped that wasn't the case.

After all, the monster that lies to me about having found and kidnapped Bianca's soul - even if it technically wasn't Bianca anymore - is a monster with a painful trip to Tartarus in their future.


	2. I become a stalker

Will Solace was a little lost. He'd read the Forum Shops map wrong; apparently, the Betty Page store was much farther from his position than he'd thought. Now he was pushing past hordes of slow, aimless tourists, carrying his boyfriend's aviator jacket in one arm and a bag of soon-to-be medical supplies in the other. Statues and paintings of the gods stared him down at every turn, and Will had a nagging feeling that they were judging him.

 _Your shirt is untucked_ , Apollo's fresco face chided.

 _You're going to make your friends late for the meet-up_ , Ares' picture spat.

 _Nico will start fighting with you again_ , Aphrodite's statue warned.

The demigod's thoughts were never as easygoing as his demeanor. Distracted, Will walked right into a tourist guy, knocking both of them to the ground. The guy dropped his arm-length margarita glass. Drachmas spilled out of Will's pockets. "Oh, gods," sighed Will, biting back a curse. He scooped his coins back up and, already on his feet, extended a hand to the glass-pricked tourist. That's when Will noticed the guy's shirt.

It was blue. It was splattered with margarita. It read "#NOHOMO" and had a picture of a crossed-out gay rights flag.

Will's eyes widened and for a moment he was frozen in shock. Homophobia was still a thing? People had seemed so accepting lately and, as a demigod, Will couldn't exactly check the internet to get the whole story. As soon as the tourist was helped up, Will started rushing through the crowds again, ignoring people's cries of protest when he bumped into them. His thoughts were distracting him yet again, but this time he was only thinking of Nico di Angelo.

Will hadn't meant to fall in love with Nico. At first, he'd listened to his sister Kayla rave about the Ghost King day after day. She and a couple other girls at camp had stalker-rate crushes on Nico, the kind of crush that can only be subdued by thousand-man armies, fire, and a box of Kleenex. It was a little contagious; Will developed a good opinion of Death Boy, too. And when he had his first major conversations with Nico during the defense of Camp Half-Blood, it was like Will already knew him. Kayla had been so excited to hear about that little exchange of words that she'd nearly re-injured half the infirmary. So Will figured that his sister would doubly happy if he made Nico come rest in the infirmary for a few days.

That's not exactly how it went. Kayla was mortified and Nico was standoffish towards her. But Death Boy still had to rest up in the infirmary for three days. So Will chatted with him constantly, not minding that it seemed incredibly flirty at times. He brought out a few board games and card games. Will always won at Connect-4. Nico always won at Mythomagic. Neither could win at chess. They bonded, first as teasing friends, then as a head-over-heels in love child of the Underworld and a willing-to-experiment son of Apollo. And now, only five months later, they were officially dating. Kayla's head nearly exploded, but it turned out that she was more comfortable crushing on Nico from a distance.

Will hopped onto a spiral escalator, which took him up a few stories into the Forum Shops' golden, vaulting brilliance. The Betty Page store was finally in sight. He thought he could see Hazel and Nico inside, among the dresses. He was soon off the escalator, his sandals slapping the marble floors as he headed towards his friends.

* * *

 **Mortal POV**

I am a retard. Actually, sorry to retarded people. I'm just unfathomably stupid. I didn't think I'd keep following the cute couple once they'd left the shop. I definitely thought I'd quit following them once they left Caesar's Palace. I don't even know what possessed me to follow them all the way down the Strip, to Las Vegas' downtown area. I didn't know I had it in me to be an actual stalker... Or to walk for like, five miles on a hot, dry, blindingly sunny desert day.

It might've been something to do with curiosity. The cute couple was joined by a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy in an orange t-shirt and board shorts. The gorgeous pale guy kissed the newcomer on his cheek, which caused the smiling blonde to look around uneasily. What? Was that... Gay? I'm not homophobic or anything, but I get a little brain fart at unexpected acts of gayness. Maybe they're cousins? Either way, the blonde dude seemed wary and the pale guy, not noticing, took a dark aviator's jacket from the blonde and put it on. I admit: That was a sad moment for me. It really covered up that fine body.

Hot damn, I'm creepy. Jeez.

It was even harder to avoid the fact of my creepiness when they noticed me in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It's weird, I didn't even know that place was there. I'd never seen it from the streets; I'd never seen it in pictures. I didn't know it existed until the teenagers stopped outside of it to talk with some lady and her two tuxedoed bodyguards. The lady had on a shitload of makeup and her hair was pulled back painfully tight. Only two of the teenagers stopped to talk. The blonde guy had gone down a side street earlier, for some reason, and the lady didn't get to see him. There weren't a lot of people around outside of the Lotus Hotel, so it's a wonder that I wasn't noticed right then. I was trying to casually lean against a wall, hoping to stay hidden in broad daylight, when the lady and the teenagers started fighting each other. I mean, they seriously looked like they were trying to kill one another. I couldn't tell who started it and I couldn't clearly see all of what was going on, since the Mist was still affecting me. But, from what I could see, the golden-eyed girl yelled and was suddenly on a horse, swinging a pole around. More bodyguards appeared out of thin air, making me think I'd miscounted. And yet, the girl looked surprised, too, even as she rode her horse into them. Oh god. Did she just kill people? Where's the blood?

Meanwhile, the pale guy had run back a few feet as he - oh sweet jesus, that body - took off his jacket and held it over his head, so he stood in its shadow. Next thing I knew, he was standing behind one of the bodyguards, wielding a black baseball bat... No, a sword... Wait, what? I couldn't tell which it was, sword or bat. Whatever it was, he attacked a bodyguard with it. Again, there wasn't any blood. The man had been sliced into two halves, and even though he was the one to do it, the dark-haired guy looked a little confused. The halves of the bodyguard were still flesh-colored all the way through, like a statue or... Or a wax figure. Pale guy didn't have time to process this, because the halved-thing and its buddies were still attacking. The asphalt next to the pale guy began to crack, like something was emerging. Tuxedoed bodyguards were still coming at the teens with... Daggers? Nightsticks? It was hard to tell. The girl was trampling the wax into shapeless pancakes with her horse. Bizarrely enough, soldiers had crawled out of the ground to help the pale guy. At the time, I didn't see that they were undead.

The lady, whose guards were doing a pretty good job of protecting her, suddenly found herself having to dodge arrows. I was just as startled as she was. Where were the arrows coming from? I looked around and saw the blonde guy on the roof of the two-story building I was leaning against. Now, I should mention that throughout all this, I'd been fighting an inexplicable urge to look away. It couldn't possibly be happening. It shouldn't. My too-mortal brain couldn't process it all. And yet, I wanted to keep watching. I lasted through the horse appearance, the shadow teleporting, and the wax dudes. But when the makeup-laden, arrow-dodging lady turned out to be half lion or something, I reflexively looked the other way. That's how strong the Mist is for mortals. I just lost control of my head.

Looking away turned out to be a stroke of luck. When all the bodyguards were dealt with, the lady did something that nobody could properly describe to me later. It seems like she had some kind of flash grenade that caused everyone looking at it to collapse. When I managed to turn my head back towards the fight, the girl and the boy were passed out on the waxy asphalt, with the horse gently nudging its rider. As the lady-creature ran into the Lotus Hotel, one last arrow flew after her, accompanied by an angry yell as it missed its target.


	3. We walk ourselves into a prison

Will was still conscious after the light grenade went off. He had accidentally knocked over his second sheath of arrows into a rain drain. Right before the Sphinx had set the grenade off, he'd run out of arrows. The son of Apollo had been reaching his arm into the drain, trying to get just one more arrow, when the Lotus Hotel's windows lit up with reflected brightness. Will finally dragged an arrow out of the drain, notched it, and sprang to his feet, only to see his friends knocked out and the Sphinx escaping. The teen desperately fired his arrow, only for it to miss the Sphinx's tail by an inch.

He pushed through the rickety rooftop door that led to the building's dimly lit staircase, then rushed down the steps two at a time, so fast that it felt like falling. The demigod burst through the staircases' first-floor door and dove through a gift shop's thicket of tacky Vegas t-shirts. Will was exposed to several languages' worth of insults as he shoved tourists aside. It sounded like some French guy called Will a crotch. The gift shop's front door spat him out onto the sidewalk and he kept running, looping around to the back of the building and towards the Lotus Hotel. Will was about forty feet from the Lotus' entrance and could see that his friends were starting to move again. Arion was trotting back and forth near Hazel. By the time Will reached them, Nico had propped himself up into a sitting position on the asphalt's slightly sticky layer of wax. The healer assessed both of his friends with a doctor's eye, quickly scanning them for injuries. They seemed a little scratched up and overheated, but nothing too serious. Will extended a hand to the son of Hades, helping him up. Hazel was already on her feet. Will brushed the hair out of Nico's pale, dirt-streaked face and said a million things all at once. "Are you okay? Did you overexert yourself? Do you need anything?" And lastly, "Gods of Olympus, Nico, drink some water!" The son of Apollo lifted a thermos of water to Nico's lips, trying to get him to drink. Nico pushed it away and backed up two steps, shooting Will a semi-pissed look. The blonde boy got the message: _"Stop smothering me. We've talked about this."_ Nico wiped some of the dirt off his face and said, "Hazel, if you think you're still up to it, we need you to take us into the Lotus Hotel." The child of the Underworld looked his sister over. She seemed a little disheveled and sweaty, but otherwise fine. "I'll be okay," said Hazel. Her horse, satisfied with that statement, nickered happily and trotted off. Nico gestured for Hazel to lead the way. As she began to walk ahead of them, Will slapped the thermos into his boyfriend's hand, causing Nico to falter in surprise. Will kept walking. Shaking his head, Nico bemusedly drank from the thermos. The healer glanced back at Nico just in time to see this. Before entering the palace where time stands still, Will smirked and thought _Doctor: one. Death Boy: zero_. Then Hazel flicked open the hotel's glass doors by their golden frames. A flowery, cool breeze wafted over the sun-fried demigods. They'd entered the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

* * *

Hazel's job in this situation was to control the Mist. The idea was that if she could keep it from affecting her and her friends, they wouldn't get trapped. Immediately, her concentration wavered. She hadn't been completely prepared for the sheer amount of distractions. Hazel glanced back at her brother. Nico looked a little surprised, too. "They've added a lot more," he murmured. "Is that... A waterslide?" The demigods stood still for a few seconds, dazedly blinking at the sheer variety of games and temptingly fun-looking attractions. The Lotus Hotel was truly splendid, with balconies from each floor extending up through its interior. Then a man with a friendly smile walked up to them. Hazel noticed her brother stiffen warily. "Hey, welcome back," the man said, looking directly at Nico. "I see you've brought new friends! Do you have your Lotus Cash Cards yet? With the Platinum cards, you'll have access to a whole new fl-"

Without the slightest hesitation, Nico jumped into the air, dug the tip of his sword into the floor for balance, and kicked the Lotus man's chest with both feet. There was a sound like ribs cracking as the man hit the ground, hard. Hazel jumped a little, startled at her brother's outburst of brutality. It was especially unsettling because the man was mortal, not just a monstrous target to be taken out. She turned towards Nico and met his cold gaze. He was usually more contained. As he looked at Hazel, Nico softened his expression and said, "It's his job to encourage people to stay here. I was only trying to protect us." At that, Hazel nodded and turned her attention back to the Mist. After all, they still had a Sphinx to find. She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, probing for things altered or obscured by the Mist. After a few seconds, Hazel's eyes flew back open. Nico and Will looked concerned, but she waved them off. Hazel closed her eyes, trying again. _No_ , she thought. _It can't be true._ And yet, when the daughter of Pluto opened her eyes once more, she knew that her senses were correct.

Hazel focused on a nearby section of the hotel's wall. She'd sensed that it was completely made out of Mist. So she focused on clearing away that Mist, removing every scrap of magic from a single 12-inch by 12-inch part of the world. Her friends, of course, still had no idea what she was trying to do. The Mist here felt more ancient, more permanent than the stuff she usually encountered.

"Hazel," Will was asking. "Why are you glaring at Tristan McLean's abs?"

The section of wall finally warped and disappeared, along with the Tristan McLean movie poster. Hazel turned away from the wall and fanned herself. She hadn't realized the poster was there. Meanwhile, Nico and Will were staring at the square-shaped hole that had appeared. The harshly bright concrete jungle of Las Vegas was visible through the hole. Nico looked at Hazel and said, "Did you just destroy the wall with your mind?"

"Sort of," Hazel admitted. "This whole place is made of Mist. At least, most of it is. A few things are real - the people, for one - but the rest of this building is Mist."

Suddenly, there was a loud snapping noise. The wall had popped back into place, with Tristan McLean's shining bare torso and everything. Hazel stared at the wall like it had insulted her mother. Then she huffed and said, "Nico, this place has been around for a long time, am I right?"

"Yeah," her brother replied. "It was founded by a tribe called the Lotus-eaters. It's existed for a few hundred years, at least."

"In that case, I don't think I'll be able to completely stop this Mist from affecting us. It's too deeply rooted in reality." Nico sighed with impatience. Nearly ten minutes had passed since the Sphinx escaped into the Lotus Hotel, if not longer. "Can't you do _anything_ about it?" he asked, not wanting to risk another lifetime stuck in this place. Hazel nodded and said "I should be able to stop the Mist from affecting our perception of time. We'll still be affected by stuff like walls and chasms appearing beneath our feet, but we probably won't get stuck here."

"Whoa there," Will Solace said. "Time out. Didn't you kill somebody by making a chasm appear underneath them?"

A pained look played across Hazel's features. "Um, yes. Pasiphaë," she said. Will was shaking his head. "I'm all for not getting lost in time, but are you sure that nothing can be done about the physical stuff," he said. "Look," Hazel said sternly, "I'll do my best. I've never come across Mist like this before and, _Boy_ , you'd better thank the gods that I can manipulate it at all."

Hazel noticed Nico looking at her with a face that said " _You just used your old-timer tone and called my boyfriend Boy. Holy Zeus, Hazel, you can't just scold him like that"_ when a shrill voice rang out from the balconies above them. "I have another riddle for you!" cried the Sphinx. "What happens to the soul of a reincarnated hero who dies before they're old enough to be potty-trained?"

The demigods looked up, trying to find the source of the voice. On the third balcony up, the Sphinx was resting her makeup-encased head uncomfortably close to a curly-haired toddler, who couldn't have been older than three. She had the baby balanced on the balcony's railing, just barely holding onto it with one claw. In that moment, Hazel sensed that the toddler was the one with Bianca's soul, the same way she could sense a soul passing into the Underworld. The Sphinx's lipstick-lined mouth stretched into a maniacally wide grin. Then something happened that the demigods recognized. They hadn't seen it for a few months, since the gods had their identity crisis. The Sphinx flickered, and for a moment she had less makeup, kohl-lined eyes, and a calmer, more regal look. "I won't kill her, of course," said the monster. "She's the child of two powerful magicians, with the soul of a Greek demigod. She will be the new pharaoh, the one I've been waiting to eat -" the makeup-laden face twitched with confusion "- I mean, _protect_."

* * *

 **A/N: Special thanks to nobody That's me and Hunger games fan2002 for my first reviews and the push I needed to keep writing (I wasn't sure whether to continue). I hope you liked this chapter, 'cause it's not over yet!**


	4. The wall eats my head

After the three teenagers went into the Lotus Hotel, everything seemed quieter. I was left with my thoughts and the waxy asphalt for a while, and I think that was the moment I fully realized how stalker-y I was being. What to do now, what to do, I thought. I couldn't just keep standing outside, by myself, not doing anything. Seriously, Las Vegas gets hotter than hell. Pretty sure that in hell, the thermostat has a range of "freezing over" to "Las Vegas." That's what I was thinking about when I walked after the crazy fighter teens. I was not thinking like a stalker this time, okay? Also, I'd never been in this casino before. As I walked over to the glass doors, hoping that the teens weren't still near the entrance, a square hole appeared in the wall a few feet away from me. I gawked at it, half expecting a teen or makeup lady to pop out. The sounds of the casino echoed out of the hole, including the sounds of people talking. I recognized the voices. Damn, they're still by the entrance. It's been, like, ten minutes and they're still there. The hole snapped shut. I nervously walked over to where it had been. I could still hear voices and games coming through the hole. Was it solid? I poked the wall.

I imagined explaining myself to someone later. "Hey, what were you up to, skipping school today," I'd get asked. What would I say? "Oh nothing, just poking walls all badass-like."

The wall felt solid. I even had a flake of plaster on my nail. And yet, the sounds _were_ coming through. So I closed my eyes and tried to listen for a bit, maybe get some idea of what was going on. I heard the girl as she explained something. She called someone "boy." Why would she do that? She's not even super old. Then I heard the makeup lady's voice. The lady was talking about a baby dying. What the hell? That sounded insane, literally. Then the lady's voice got more muffled, like she had a thing in her mouth. Not in the talking-with-mouth-full kind of way, more like holding something in there. A few people shouted, maybe the teens. I looked back towards the glass doors and saw the girl's horse nudging the glass with its nose. That spooked me a little; I hadn't heard the large creature come up.

* * *

 **Arion's POV:**  
 _Shit. Those little bastards took Hazel into this shithole. I should bust in and go all immortal horse on their sorry asses,_ Arion thought. He nickered and shook his mane, frustrated. _If I go in after those annoying twats, I could get stuck, too._ He sniffed the doors. _Smells like evil shit. I'm frikin'_ _Arion_ _, though. I probably won't get trapped by these shitheads._

Arion suddenly remembered his time with the Amazons.

 _Best not be hasty_ , he thought. Arion turned his head to the side and saw a mortal staring at him. _This fool_ , the horse thought, is _the one that's been following my demigod around_. He stepped towards the mortal, hoofs clicking on the asphalt. The mortal now smelled like fear. _Also,_ noticed Arion, _it smells like a female. And this bitch smells very hormonal._ He figured the mortal was probably following one of those shithead demigod males that Hazel liked to hang out with.

 _Well_ , thought Arion. _This could work._ Faster than the terrified mortal could blink, Arion ran behind her and grabbed the back of her shirt with his teeth. He picked her up and shoved her through the Lotus Hotel and Casino's glided doors. The mortal made a squeaking sound before the doors close behind her. _That brainless little shit_ , Arion thought, _will probably keep following my demigod._ _That oughta remind them of the mortal world they've got to come back to._ _That'll do for now._ _If nobody comes out in an hour,_ he decided, _I'm going after them._

* * *

 **Mortal POV**  
Freaking horse. I think I peed myself. Probably not. I think I broke my face on this plushy carpet. Ugh. _There's horse drool on my neck_ , I thought as I pushed myself up. What possesses a horse to do that? I would've gone in anyways. Then I heard a groan very close to where I was. I turned my head towards the sound. A man was lying on his back, trying to get up. I frowned. Is he okay? Is it another wax monster? This guy wasn't dressed like the others, but I didn't want to find out. I probably couldn't kill him with my laptop. So I scrambled away from the groaning man, coming to a stop behind one of the building's support columns. Only then did I look at my surroundings.

The games, the bungee jumping, the waterslide; there was so much. It blew my mind. Entranced, I walked over to a game's holographic display. It was a game for designing your own city. I knelt and examined the machine. Do I insert coins or what? There was only a card slot. That snapped me out of it. I don't have money for that crap, even if it's regrettably cool-looking crap. I blinked off my stupor and now I could hear shouting. I looked up and saw the makeup lady running along a balcony, gripping a baby harness in her mouth. There was a nauseous-looking baby swinging around in that harness. The three teenagers were going after the lady, but they were being fought by some weirdoes.

I say weirdoes because of the way they were dressed. There were maybe thirty of them. One, a woman, had short blond hair and a crop top. Another looked like Tiger Woods. That one's Katy Perry... Alongside a dagger-swinging Justin Bieber, apparently. The blond guy had a kitchen knife and whacked Bieber's arm off with it. The inside wasn't bone and blood; it was metal and some other material. Holy smokes. Those things are the wax figures from Madame Tussauds, I realized. The pale guy, who definitely had a sword, was a blur of motion, causing wax limbs to drop left and right.

I'm on drugs, I decided. Somebody drugged me and I'm having a bad trip. This can't be real.

Bieber's head was sliced off so forcefully that it flew over the balcony and hit me in the chest, a pouty celebrity expression still on his face. Ow ow ow. Okay, that's real enough for now. The makeup lady was getting away from the teens. She was almost to the elevator and the three fighters were at least forty feet behind her.

A thought flashed through my head. It would suck so much if this baby-swinging wax-commanding freak made off with a toddler while I just stood here with Bieber's head. I tore my eyes away from the battle and ran towards the elevator. The lady must've been right above me on the balcony. That's when I tripped, going headfirst into a thick column. But I never hit it. Instead, I fell onto a patch of asphalt. The column had disappeared. I flipped myself over, fast, just in time to see a huge animal falling from above. I saw its head and it was dangling a baby from its mouth. Shit. It has the lady's head. I was trying to get my muscles to work again, to move out of the way and avoid death by lion-lady rump, when the column reappeared. The lion-lady had been inches from my face. Now she was stuck in the column. This would've been great if my head and shoulders weren't also stuck. Panic welled up in my chest. I couldn't breathe. Pressure squeezed my head from all sides. I blacked out.

* * *

 **Nico's POV**

Nico slung one of Hazel's arms over his shoulder, motioning for Will to do the same. Hazel had collapsed after wiping away the Mist underneath the feet of the Sphinx and the Sphinx's minions. She'd only been able to do that for a few seconds, but it completely immobilized the attackers. Wax singers and sports stars were sunken into the floor. Limbs stuck out of the carpet at odd angles, some still wielding daggers. Nico and Will picked their way through the patch of limbs, moving towards the elevator. The wax figures, thankfully, weren't moving anymore. Nico noticed Hazel trying to take steps on her own, but she could barely move her feet. They gingerly helped her into the elevator. Will pressed the button for the lobby and Hazel managed to shakily lean against the elevator's wall. Nico stood close to his sister, ready to catch her if she collapsed again. He sighed heavily and studied Hazel's pained expression. The son of Hades felt guilty for letting his sister harm herself _. I should've known this would be too much for Hazel to take_ , thought Nico _. I'm the quest leader. I'm her big brother, for Zeus's sake. Why didn't I realize what would happen?_ _  
_  
Nico watched as Will made Hazel drink from a bottle of nectar. She swallowed a few sips and her eyes fluttered open. "Thanks," Hazel said softly. The elevator door opened and the demigods walked out. Nico stayed close to Hazel, who was walking unsteadily.

Will and Nico looked around, scanning the Lotus Hotel's lobby for the Sphinx. "The monster should be over here," said Hazel, walking up to a column. Sure enough, the Sphinx's head stuck out of the column, jaw locked on the baby harness. The baby girl dangled from the straps, sniffling. She had a runny nose. Nico reached up and unstrapped the toddler. He held her awkwardly. It was hard to believe that this kid used to be his big sister. Then Nico's foot hit something soft and he looked down in surprise. The body of a girl, dressed in a loose pink t-shirt and cargo shorts, was sticking out of the column. A large tote bag lay at her side. Nico heard a gasp from Hazel, apparently noticing what he was looking at.

Will knelt down and checked the girl's wrist for a pulse. "She's alive," he said. Of course, Nico could've told him if she were dead. "I didn't know anyone was there," Hazel murmured. Then she turned to Will and said, "Grab her ankles, please."

"All right," Will said.

"Wait, what?" said Nico, still trying to comfortably hold the slobbery, smiling baby with Bianca's soul. Before he could say anything else, Hazel had made part of the column disappear and Will had pulled the girl out. As Hazel sank to the ground again, worn out by the effort, Arion burst through the Lotus Hotel's glass doors, whinnying a battle cry.

* * *

 **A/N: If you think there's something wrong with this story so far, please review! I am looking to improve.**


	5. The Ghost King's baby skills

The hotels of Las Vegas tend to have themes going for them, whether it's a theme of luring people to spend an eternity outside of time or more innocent themes, like New York and Egypt. Since the people who control Vegas have mostly been demigods, a lot of the ornate buildings have secret tributes to the Olympians. Take Caesar's Palace, for one; the whole thing is dedicated to Zeus/Jupiter. The Paris hotel is Aphrodite's desert base, where she pisses off Hera by causing shotgun weddings en masse. Will Solace had known about Apollo's temple in Las Vegas for a few years, but he hadn't gotten to visit it until this quest. Now the huge gazebo-like structure at the top of the Bellagio was where the three demigods stayed in town.

"Are you sure your dad won't mind us bringing a mortal in here," huffed Nico as he dragged the girl through the temple's narrow doorway. For some reason, her body had stiffened up and her limbs were immovably straight. "Nah," Will said, getting some medical supplies. "He's just glad to have people up here again." Arion ducked through the door, with Hazel weakly clinging to his back. Meanwhile, the son of Apollo was trying to devise a treatment that didn't involve mortal-killing ambrosia and nectar. The girl was still alive, all right, but Will had no idea how to keep her that way. He didn't even know exactly what was wrong with her. For a fleeting second, Will thought about how much simpler this would be if they'd left the mortal at the Lotus Hotel. The healer sighed and thought, _Hazel was right, anyways. We were kind of responsible for putting this chick's head in a post._ Will pulled some bandages and water from his supplies, figuring that he'd just say an incantation over the girl and have water ready if it didn't work. Nico had put the mortal on a blanket. Hazel had propped herself up against a wall nearby. Will began the healing incantation.

* * *

 **Hazel's POV**

Even though they'd safely made it out of the Lotus Hotel, Hazel kept replaying what had happened in her head. She wanted to make sense of it all. What if things had happened differently? What if she'd had to take on the Lotus-eaters? As the mortal girl's fingers twitched under Will's healing chant, Hazel's mind started to go through it again. The fortune-teller's daughter had a feeling that she was close to piecing together the Lotus-eaters' motives. She let her golden eyes close and was swallowed up in thought.

For the most part, the people behind the Lotus Hotel and Casino's operation didn't bother their guests. After all, they had games to play and Lotus fruit to eat. But sometimes, just sometimes, there was an event that warranted intervention. For instance, the time a group of demigods tried to drag away twenty guests with their horse.

Hazel suspected that she knew how the Lotus Hotel worked, but it wasn't confirmed until the Lotus-eaters flooded into the lobby. They must've been the Lotus-eaters, reasoned Hazel. These people were the only ones that walked like they had a purpose or knew what was going on. There were fifty of them… No, one hundred… There were too many to count. They were dressed in an eclectic mix of comfortable clothing from all eras; loose Greek attire, medieval underwear, Hawaiian shirts, neon pajamas. Hazel tried to lift her head up and face these newcomers, but a wave of nausea forced her back down onto Arion's mane. Two grumpy-looking mortals sat on Arion behind her, trying to get off. The horse was corralling a crowd of mortals, trotting around them in a circle. He threatened to bite a few of them, but Hazel pulled him back. She always had to do that. Just a few minutes ago, Arion nearly stampeded her brother. A tall woman emerged from the group of Lotus-eaters, dressed in a white nightgown like the kind Hazel used to wear. The daughter of the Underworld was vaguely aware that her brother had stepped up to face the woman.

The baby girl started babbling loudly. Nico was still holding her. Then the nightgowned woman spoke. "We treated you and your sister to seventy years of hospitality," she said, addressing di Angelo. "You would repay us by causing our destruction?"

Hazel figured that Nico wouldn't take kindly to that assertion. "We were imprisoned" had come up a lot over the past few days. _Suggesting "hospitality,"_ Hazel thought, _is more insulting than spitting pop-rocks in his face_. Sure enough, when Nico spoke his tone was tinged with anger. "We didn't come here to destroy you," he said. "But thanks for giving us the opportunity."

 _He's still holding Bianca's soul_ , thought Hazel. _Oh, gods, Nico. Don't put that little girl in danger._ Thankfully, he didn't draw his sword. The hotel rumbled. Apparently he was trying to summon some skeleton warriors. A few Lotus-eaters frowned and... Nothing happened. Skeleton warriors weren't bursting through the tacky carpet or the glass doors. There was more rumbling, as if Nico were trying again. Hazel noticed her brother shaking slightly from the effort. They're diverting the skeletons, she realized. She could sense the skeletal warriors getting lost in tunnels that didn't exist.

The woman in the white nightgown spoke again, as if she hadn't noticed any disturbance at all. Nico looked uneasy. "We have no issue with letting you and your friends go free," the woman said "as long as you don't force our guests out, too." Hazel could hardly believe her ears. _We're not forcing anyone,_ she thought. _We're trying to let these people go free._ Even as she had that thought, Hazel realized it wasn't true. They hadn't asked anyone if they wanted to leave. But of course, nobody would _want_ to leave this funhouse. "Why does it matter to you, anyways," a frustrated Nico was asking. "What makes twenty people more valuable to you than four?"

The woman's eyes flicked over to Hazel. "Your sorceress friend knows," she said. Nico looked like he was about to say more, but the Lotus-eater kept talking. "We can't keep you around in the long run, demigods. You know what our hotel is made of. So it's your choice," said the woman. "You can leave now, without bothering any of our guests, or you can fight us. Should you choose to fight, you will lose your lives. Your sister's soul will never reach the Isles of the Blest. The horse will be caged. Your Sphinx and your mortal girl will meet similar fates. " Later, Nico had told Hazel that he'd wanted to draw his sword, to fight the Lotus-eaters with Arion and Will at his side. He just couldn't think of a way to do that without endangering the baby girl. If Bianca died a second time because of him, Nico would never forgive himself. "It's you few against several hundred skilled enchanters," the Lotus-eater reminded him. Then, in a softer tone, she said "We don't want to harm anyone."

Hazel's eyes shot open. Of course they didn't want to harm anyone, she realized. They needed mortals to keep their hotel strong, to keep their illusion from drifting too far away from reality. The pieces were falling into place. People rely on their senses to interpret reality. Senses can be fooled. How can someone tell the difference between a hallucination and reality? They can ask another person if they're seeing things. What if the other person sees it, too? Is it real? Hazel's thoughts were racing a million miles an hour. What if millions or billions of people believe something is real and they treat it as if it's real? Maybe, since the Mist could fool people's senses, it helped along that shift towards reality.

The pink-shirted mortal girl wasn't stiff anymore. Will had stopped his chant, but he didn't look happy. Hazel was trying to remember what she knew about the Labyrinth. She'd been told it was a confusing place, where distance and time were irrelevant and pathways would shift and disappear. _And what_ , thought the daughter of Pluto, _makes the Lotus Hotel so different from the Labyrinth_? The Labyrinth had fewer people witnessing it at all times; it behaved more like a hallucination. The Lotus-eaters kept people around that constantly interacted with their Mist creation; it behaved more like a real place.

" _What makes twenty people more valuable to you than four?"_ Nico had asked. Hazel, who was feeling a little stronger, turned to her brother. She thought she could answer that question now. Before she could say anything, Will sighed loudly. "I don't know if I can do anything else for her," he said. "We're in a temple to Apollo, for crying out loud. Just being in here should've made her better." The tired-looking healer looked at Hazel and said "I think it's a Mist thing. That's my best guess, anyways. She _did_ have her head stuck in a magic pole. You think you can help me out here?"

* * *

 **Nico's POV**

The day wasn't treating Nico well. First he'd been faced down by a horde of fucking Lotus-eaters. Now his boyfriend was asking his already-weakened sister to pass out again. _Will, no,_ he wanted to say. _That mortal is not worth making Hazel sick._ But Nico didn't want to cause an argument with Will. They'd had their share of those already. And he didn't want to seem like a monster, telling them to let that girl die. So he stayed silent, dying inside, as Hazel knelt by the mortal girl. He took a deep breath and picked up Bianca – _not Bianca anymore,_ he reminded himself – who was sitting next to him. The kid had curly light brown hair and blue eyes. She gave him her adorable baby-smile. Nico managed a lopsided grin and gently pressed his forehead to the baby girl's forehead, exhaling. Trying to relax for one damn second. When he pulled away, the toddler wasn't smiling anymore. As the mortal cried out from the other side of the room, Bianca burped and puked white stuff all over Nico's shirt. He groaned.

First he'd been faced down by a horde of fucking Lotus-eaters. Then his boyfriend asked his sister to potentially pass out again. Then Bianca spit up on his shirt.

Nico didn't let himself stop thinking of the little girl as Bianca. He wouldn't let himself smack Bianca, after all. He gingerly put the kid down and looked over to see if Hazel was okay. His sister was a little shaky. She had one hand on the mortal girl's shoulder, but Nico couldn't tell if Hazel was keeping herself up or comforting the mortal, who was crying and breathing heavily. Mentally, he put "dealing with random hysterical mortal" on his list of things that made the day suck.


	6. Pain and money-eating

**A/N: I thought of this character before making my account.**

* * *

I have a new least favorite way to wake up. Falling out of bed sucks. Throwing up in the middle of a dream is worse. Both of those are child's play in comparison with getting the Mist taken out you. I shuddered just now, thinking about it. It's a bit like pulling a really long snot string out of your nose, only it's getting pulled out of your eye sockets and you get a splitting headache and break into a cold sweat and get cramps in your everything and feel violently nauseous and think you're going to die.

That's possibly the worst way to wake up. Plus, I was meeting a group of people for the first time and I already owed them my life. It really sucks when people see me crying. I was in pain from the Mist-ripping and the social awkwardness of the whole thing; I'm still not sure which one hurt worse. Probably the awkwardness, which intensified when Hazel, the golden-eyed girl, frowned at me a little and asked "Weren't you in the Betty Page store?"

"No way," said Will, the blond. "She was near that gift shop in front of the Lotus Hotel."

"Actually," yawned Nico, showing off his unbelievably sexy tonsils, "Margo bumped into me in the crowd on the Strip."

Okay, his tonsils weren't sexy, but in that moment I childishly admired everything about him. I'd just found out that he was a son of Hades, who happened to be my favorite god in Mythomagic. A few minutes ago I'd gotten a brief rundown on the mythology-laden truth of the world, and it was still ringing in my head when Hazel gave me a weird look and asked, "What were you doing in the Lotus Hotel anyways?"

I uneasily looked around the room, not meeting anyone's eyes. That goddamn horse, who was munching on gold nuggets on the other side of the big room, made a sound like evil snickering. _Well_ , I thought, _I_ _do_ _owe them my life_. I sighed and muttered, "I was following you guys." Cue the awkwardness and wary looks. Hazel took her hand off my shoulder. "Why? What were you doing?" demanded Will.

I was vaguely aware of Nico changing into a bright shirt that Will had handed to him. Using every ounce of willpower to keep from looking at that vision of pale perfection, I said "I'm not completely sure. I don't usually follow random people." It would be so much easier to tell the truth if I wasn't afraid they'd let the horse loose on me. What was I supposed to say, "I was prepared to follow your friend to the ends of the earth on looks alone"? That was maybe one or two billion miles out of my comfort zone. Lucky for me, things didn't get a chance to be that awkward.

* * *

 **Will's POV**

Will's gaze drifted over to Nico, who was now wearing a shirt with large plaid print. Damn, he looked good in light colors. The shirt's sleeves, which were already half-rolled up, hugged Nico's toned arms. Will was ecstatic that he'd gotten his boyfriend to wear something other than black, even if it was because of baby puke. The mortal girl, Margo, was pretty much dealt with. They could now move on to planning the next part of the quest. _We'll need dinner, too,_ thought Will. His stomach grumbled like a cranky minotaur.

* * *

 **Nico's POV  
**  
They couldn't keep the baby girl. Nico knew this. She'd been stolen away from somewhere - probably a warm, loving family - and even though she had Bianca's soul, Nico readily accepted that he couldn't provide for a growing child. It'd become obvious that the son of Hades still needed people to look out for him, a point that Will liked to bring up, so how could he look out for another person? Nico felt hollow inside at the thought of letting his sister go a second time. _I want her to have the best life possible_ , he reminded himself. _I will not be the one to screw up Bianca's second chance._

The child of the Underworld had put the curly-haired little girl to sleep on a folded blanket. He brushed aside a soft strand of his former sister's hair and turned to his quest-mates. Hazel had her eyes closed, either sleeping or thinking. Will was rummaging through everyone's supplies. Arion was swishing his tail, all done with his gold snack. The pink-shirted mortal had brought out a laptop and was fiddling around with it. Nico walked across the round room to his friends and sat down next to Hazel. "I have a pretty good idea of what we're doing next," said the dark-eyed boy. "I'll go to the Underworld and ask around, see if Hades or any ghosts can tell me who this reincarnated baby was born to. Will, you and Hazel will head to San Francisco. There's a seer there, goes by the name of Nereus. If I don't have any luck in the Underworld, you two will have to beat Nereus into submission and get him to tell you how to find Bianca's reincarnation parents. Sounds good?"

"Whoa there," Will said, making a time-out sign with his hands. "You'll be all alone, Death Boy. What if you get kidnapped and put into a jar again?"

Nico glared at the son of Apollo. _He brought it up again. I told him not to keep bringing that up._ "I'll be in the Underworld, Will," he growled. "My home turf. I'll be fine. Besides, doesn't Hazel deserve to have some company, too?"

"Like Arion," said Will, smirking. "She's got an ultra-powerful immortal horse on her side, Neeks. Hazel will be fine."

"And it's not like I'm some helpless damsel in distress, you know," murmured Hazel. Nico saw that she'd opened her eyes a crack. "I can take care of myself, Nico. With Arion's help, I can take care of Nereus, too."

The plaid-shirted child of darkness sighed. His boyfriend already had a triumphant look twinkling through those blue eyes. "I don't know if you'll be safe in the Underworld," Nico told Will. "I can control most of what goes on there, sure. But I don't know if Hades will like you. My father doesn't have a good track record with visiting demigods."

Nico watched, half-amused, as Will gasped in mock distress. "Hades not liking somebody? I can't imagine," the healer joked. "Seriously, though, you really think he'll want to kill me? You met _my_ dad. Apollo likes you."

"Yup," a disembodied voice echoed through the temple. "My kids always snag the good ones."

The mortal girl – Margret, was it? _–_ snorted granola onto her laptop in surprise. "Ew," said Apollo's voice. "Guys, you brought a mortal into my secret temple and you haven't even sacrificed anything. Think you can do that before you go? Thanks." Nico absentmindedly watched as the nervous mortal girl cleaned her laptop. "Did we bring enough food?" he wondered aloud. "Nope," answered Will. "Wait, we're in a temple?" asked the mortal. Nico nodded at her and kept talking to Will: "How about money? Please tell me we brought enough of that." Then Hazel leapt to her feet, as if startled by something. "Was anyone paying attention to what Arion was eating?" she said. All three demigods looked at the horse. Arion shook his mane and a single, dented drachma flew from his mouth. Nico groaned. He did _not_ like his sister's horse.

* * *

 **Margo's POV**

I hadn't quite realized where I was. After being told we were in a temple, it finally occurred to me to look at my surroundings. The room was huge, maybe the size of four movie theaters, and it was circle-shaped. A warm yellow glow lit the place up, so I hadn't noticed it was night outside. The ceiling was a dome and we were sitting near some steps along the room's wall… _That's not a wall,_ I thought. _There's just a series of tall archways._ As the crazy fighter teens started arguing about something, I put my laptop down and ran up the steps. I found myself looking at the glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip from hundreds of feet up. An artificial lake, dancing with coordinated fountains of water, sparkled below. My brain exploded with excitement when I realized that I was at the top of the Bellagio. _I've always wondered what was up here,_ I thought, smiling. "It's not my fault we only brought gold drachmas," Will was saying. "Hazel, can't you summon some money out of the ground?" Hazel shook her head. "I'd rather not do that. I don't know a hundred percent if my curse is still working. Trust me, that's not something you want to test."

"What are we going to do, then" cried Will. "Eat out of dumpsters?" The blond put his head in his hands. "A lot of leftovers from the buffets _do_ get thrown out," I chimed in helpfully. Hazel looked vaguely sick. "But it probably won't come to that," I added. "I earned five hundred dollars a second ago. We can eat just about anywhere."

"Wait, what? Five hundred dollars," Will repeated. For one precious second, the demigods looked shocked. "Uh, yeah," I said. "That's what I was doing on my laptop. Where do you want to go?" Nico glanced at me and said, "You know this place better than we do. What's nearby?" _Ooh, tough question._ "Literally everything in the world is nearby," I answered. "It's Las Vegas. What are you in the mood for?"All three teens were silent for a minute as this sank in. Nico was hungry for something sweet. Hazel, saying that she missed somebody named Frank, wanted Chinese food. Will told his boyfriend that you can't have cake for dinner and we should eat pizza instead. I told them about a buffet at the Aria hotel, which had all of those foods. So we went there and – after explaining to the crazy fighter teens that _no,_ it wasn't technically allowed and _yes,_ they shouldn't rat me out – I left the buffet with a few day's worth of bread and other foodstuffs. Then I handed the rest of the cash to Nico, on the condition that I could spend the rest of the night in Apollo's temple. Hey, it's a hella cool temple. "We need to get you a new shirt," Will had reminded the plaid-clad child of Hades. I didn't agree with that (Nico looked fine in red and blue) but the two boys went to a nearby Macy's while a sleepy Hazel and I went back to the top of the Bellagio. "What'd you do to earn five hundred dollars," asked Hazel on the walk back. "I didn't know computers could be used that way."

"I sold some information," I replied. "You'd be surprised how much that can sell for."

"Mm," Hazel said. "Not really." She was silent for most of the walk after that. It was really strange to walk the Strip without Mist in my eyes. I swear I saw a blue-skinned girl splashing around in the artificial lake, and I definitely saw a crowd of drunken centaurs stumble out of a bar. Plus, weird symbols and patterns seemed to drift around in the air, looking like the shock that the sun leaves on your eyeball after you stare at it. Certain things looked shimmery or less-than-solid, and I kept sensing random stuff that nobody could've been looking at… The centers of trees and pitch-black rooms, stuff like that. It didn't feel right, so I tried to ignore it, even back at the temple. It was hard enough to sleep with Hazel burning salmon for the sun god.


	7. Thongs fly

**A/N: This chapter came out really fluffy, but I guess that's just how the story goes. I hope you guys don't mind! Fear not, there's more action to come...**

* * *

 **Will's POV:**

Will and Nico burst into Apollo's temple, breathing heavily, and barred the door behind them. Solace wiped the lipstick off his cheek and said between breaths, "We shall never speak of this again." Nico picked up the silk thong off his shoulder, touching it as little as possible, and flung it into Apollo's sacred fire. "Agreed," said the disturbed, paler-than-usual son of Hades. It was around one o'clock at night and the demigod couple had just walked back up the Strip from Macy's. On the way up to Apollo's temple, they'd encountered a horde of half-naked, very drunk tourists. Nico managed to shadow travel away from the tourists without accidentally taking any with him, but not before seeing things that could not be unseen. Will shuddered. Then he looked at the dark-eyed boy and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," said Nico. "Are you?"

"No!" Will exclaimed. His joking tone and half-smile didn't match the lingering terror in his eyes. "How are you okay? You just saw -" Before the son of Apollo could finish, Nico cut him off. "Don't speak of it, remember? I'm fine because I've already seen that in Tartarus a few times. It's not so bad here," explained the pale boy. "Here, we can avoid it."

Will nodded tentatively. He never knew what to say after his boyfriend brought up Tartarus. Not wanting to show how unsettled he was, the blond turned away from Nico's searching brown eyes and started towards his bag of supplies. The temple's sunny glow had dimmed, allowing the travelers to sleep. Solace was walking over some blankets when a foot popped out and nearly tripped him. The healer cried out in alarm. He stumbled a few steps forward then turned to see what he'd almost fallen over. Behind him, Margo had thrown off her blanket and was sitting straight up. "What in Hades..!" began Will. "Wow," stammered Margo. "That was a really bad time to stretch."

The baby girl started crying. Will heard Nico sigh as he ran across the room to soothe his ex-sister. "Why," questioned the son of Apollo, "are you still here?" Irritation crept into his voice. He'd been too long without sleep. He'd been scarred for life by nude tourists. And now the baby was crying. "We fixed you up, Margo. Don't you have somewhere to go back to?"

Across the room, wailing turned to slurping noises as Nico tried feeding the baby some soft pieces of bread. "Well, yeah," admitted the mortal. "But I've always wanted to visit this place. The top of the Bellagio! I don't know if I'll get to come back." Will gave a slight nod and glanced over at the baby girl, who'd started flailing around. She punched Nico in the face. Nico appeared to be biting back a curse. "I should probably go help him," murmured Will. "Can I help, too?" asked the mortal girl. _Why in Hades is she so quick to offer help? This doesn't have anything to do with her._ "Nah," said the blond. "I got this." He grabbed some baby formula and water out of his supplies bag. Armed with the knowledge that Bianca had reborn fairly recently, Will had been prepared to deal with a young child. He was soon offering a bottle of formula to the curly-haired child, but Nico shook his head, saying "She's not crying because she's hungry."

An awful smell reached Will's nose. His eyes widened. "Dirty diaper," explained the son of Hades. The healer called to Margo, who'd opened up her laptop again. "You still wanna help?" She blearily looked up from her laptop and said, "But you got this." _It was worth a shot_ , thought Will, taking the baby from Nico and putting her down near his bag. Nico knelt next to the little girl, grimacing slightly but ready for action nonetheless.

Diaper time.

* * *

 **Margo's POV:**

I don't really want to leave these demigods. They're so exciting to be around! _I guess I'll have to go eventually_ , I thought as Will brought out a diaper. Being around them makes me feel like I could be something special, too. "Do you even know what you're doing?" Nico asked, talking to Will. "Nope," chirped the blue-eyed boy. Even though he was faced with a literal bag of shit, Will's tone was more cheerful when directed at his brown-haired friend.

I quickly typed "how to change a diaper" in my search engine. A list came up, so I clicked on the link that it came from. Will was undressing the baby. "I found some instructions for diaper-changing," I said. "Want to hear them?"

The two guys looked surprised for a moment. _They're not used to technology_ , I remembered. The healer blinked and said "That's sure to be better than nothing. Go ahead." So I rattled off the list. "You will need…"

Originally, I'd turned on my laptop because I was dreaming when Will woke me up. The dream made me remember a little detail about Mythomagic Online. At one point I'd been so jealous of the game's highest scorer, ExplodeyAwesomepants30, that I scoured the internet for all available information about them. What was it about this person that made them unbeatable? They'd set their high scores when the game was first released several years ago and in all that time, nobody had beaten them. I ended up hacking into a private school's database, some military academy called Westover Hall, and I found out that ExplodeyAwesomepants30 was about the same age as me. He'd been really young when he set that high score, which pissed me off to no end. His name, which I hadn't thought of for ages, was Nico di Angelo. I was on my laptop because I wanted to make sure I remembered right. The grim-faced, pale, unfairly alluring teen before me looked nothing like the goofy kid in Westover Hall's files.

I finished reading off the instructions. "All right! We have survived the toxic baby spill," declared Will. He and Nico, looking triumphant, high-fived each other. Then the lopsided smile dropped off Nico's face as he realized the son of Apollo hadn't washed his hands yet. Will looked sheepish. The little blue-eyed baby had fallen back asleep. I went to check my information.

* * *

 **Nico's POV:**

Nico headed over to the temple's small fountain to wash his hands. Will got up and walked after him. Somehow, Hazel and Arion had kept on sleeping, despite Bianca's howling. "I didn't think about what we'd do with the little bambino," sighed Nico. He'd sometimes let some Italian slip loose around Will; it just felt right. The healer, who'd also brought liquid soap in that bag of his, put some soap on his and Nico's hands. "She'll probably be a big help when Hazel and I are fighting Nereus," Will joked. "The old fish-man will be like, _No! Not the cuteness! Anything but the cuteness!_ " The dark-eyed boy just looked at his boyfriend glumly. "That is, if you still think I'm going with Hazel," added Will. Shaking his head slowly, Nico said, "I'm starting to think it's best if you come with me, Doc. That way, you can help me out with Bianca and she won't be as likely to get caught up in a fight with an immortal." The child of darkness noticed that he'd splashed some water on Will. Nico had been talking with his hands like he used to do around Bianca and their mother. "You and me, taking care of a kid," mused Will. "I never thought about that when I agreed to date you."

"Really?"murmured Nico, lopsided grin coming back to his face. "I always thought you'd make a great father."

Will blushed, not meeting Nico's gaze. _Doctor: one, Death Boy: one, up from zero,_ thought Nico. It was always funny, getting Will to blush. Death Boy was wondering if he should kiss the Doctor when Margo came up to them. The sound of a moment being ruined could be heard echoing across the temple's cold concrete. "Sorry," said the girl. At least she wasn't _completely_ oblivious. "But I had to ask. When are you leaving?" All at once, the son of Hades felt extremely tired. "Tomorrow, if possible," answered Nico. "At dawn, we ride," added Will.

"Oh gods no," yawned the pale half-blood. "We're getting up sometime in the afternoon. Mornings are not my friend."

Margo spoke again: "Can I come?" She said it as though she didn't expect an answer. "Why?" said Will, taking the word right out of Nico's mouth. "I could… Help with money, maybe. You guys could use the internet through me so monsters wouldn't attack you." Drying his hand on his shirt, Nico said "No. You wouldn't fit on the horse."

"I like the idea of using the internet through you," admitted Will. "You could, like, be our web-surfing puppet. But then we'd have more than three people questing around. Not good. You are not worth the risk, sorry."

"Oh," said Margo, looking a little crushed. "Not even worth the money, huh? I would've liked to see the Underworld."

"It's not that great," stated Nico. The Underworld was his domain, true. But he had only bad memories of the place.

"Okay," said the mortal. "Safe travels, then. I hope you find her parents," she added, nodding towards the curly-haired baby girl. Margo began to walk back to her laptop. After a few steps, she rushed back to them. "One last question," Margo said hurriedly. "Did you ever play Mythomagic Online as ExplodeyAwesomepants30?"

Nico hadn't thought about his Mythomagic Online account in ages. Will was smiling ridiculously at the teen in the dark aviator jacket. " _ExplodeyAwesomepants30,_ " mouthed Will. "Yeah," said Nico. "I haven't played in years, though. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering how you did that without getting ripped apart by monsters."

"I've thought about that, too," the dark-eyed boy said. "A manticore called Dr. Thorn was going to deliver me to an evil army of darkness. I guess he didn't want to let anything tear me to shreds until then."

"Cool. Thanks for telling me," Margo said, stepping back towards where she'd been sleeping. "Good night. Thanks again."

"Night," said Will before smiling at Nico again. "ExplodeyAwesomepants30," teased the healer. "I was really young, okay?" protested Nico. Will was giggling now. "ExplodeyAwesomepants30," he repeated, still grinning. "Shut up," said the son of Hades, who couldn't help smiling at the blue-eyed teen's silliness. Will was going to say it again, but Nico leaned forwards and kissed him. Behind them, a silky black thong was spit out of the fire as the demigod couple looked out at the city's glittering skyline. _Even if I'm turned into a plant again_ , thought Nico, _at least I won't be alone._

* * *

 **A/N: Special thanks to foREVermine5211 and LeoFlamin'Valdez for the new reviews! This story would not be continuing without reviewers; thanks so much for your support ^_^**


	8. Will melts some action figures

**Nico's POV:**

Nico was miserable. Riding on the fastest horse in the world was uncomfortable enough, but now the summoner-of-dead-souls had a baby strapped to his chest. Will had his arms around Nico's waist, hanging on for dear life against the extreme speed pulling them backwards. Bianca's chubby baby cheeks flapped in the wind. Through it all, Nico felt suffocated and sweaty from being crammed between people. On Arion, the trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles should've taken about ten minutes. Instead, the travelers' butts went numb over the course of forty-five minutes, since the horse had to avoid mountains, cars, and breaking the sound barrier. Nobody wanted to find out what happened to the baby girl's chubby cheeks at the speed of sound.

"THERE'S A TOWN COMING UP," Hazel shouted over her shoulder. Nico could hardly hear her over the wind.

Will shouted back, right in Nico's ear: "WHAT DID HAZEL SAY?" _Ow. Seriously, right in my ear?_ "SHE SAID," yelled the son of Hades, trying not to scream in Bianca's adorable face, "THERE'S A -"

Arion came to a sudden stop. Nico's hands shot out reflexively, bracing him against Hazel's shoulders before he could slide forwards and crush his blue-eyed baby sister. The son of Apollo slammed into Nico from behind, knocking their heads together. "Ugh," groaned the pale teen. Will dazedly rubbed his forehead and looked around at the questers' new surroundings. "Hey, a town," observed Will.

A hot gust of desert wind blew dirt into Nico's eyes. When he could see again, the dark-eyed demigod was greeted with the sight of old, cracked asphalt and one-story buildings that had seen better days. One of those buildings was a sad-looking IHOP, which now had the honor of hosting demigods in its parking lot. Will extended a hand to Nico and helped him off the horse. "Hazel," began the irritated child of the Underworld, "why are we stopping?"

Hazel climbed off of Arion and, stroking his mane, said "I remembered you telling me that you'd need to adjust the little girl. Keep her from flying out of the harness, you know?"

Nico pulled a slobbery bit of his black t-shirt out of Bianca's mouth and said, "Well, yeah, but why wait for a town?"

The golden-eyed girl fidgeted back and forth before admitting, "I need to use the ladies' room, Nico. You guys could go to the bathroom, too, or check the little one's diaper..."

Will interrupted her with a smile, saying "Hazel. We don't mind! Just go."

Hazel flashed a smile at them, and then she ran into the IHOP. The son of Apollo turned his smile to Nico, who halfheartedly tried to smirk in return. "What will we heroes do while she's in there," began Will. Arion cut him off with a loud whinny. The horse was nervously pawing the ground. Will started again: "Maybe we've got enough time to see what this lovely city of Barstow has to offer?"

"How do you know what city we're in?" wondered Nico.

"I had Margo look up our route for me," explained Will. "Man, you would not believe how much information the internet has on it."

Nico was about to explain that he didn't really care about the internet anymore, but the only thing he managed to get out before all Hades broke loose was "Will, I -"

In a flash, Arion ran up to Nico, grabbed the baby harness with his teeth, and rushed away with Bianca. Nico nearly stopped breathing. _I am going to kill that horse,_ he thought. _I am going to kill that frikin' horse._ All that was left of Arion was the trail of dirt he'd kicked up. The son of Hades was paralyzed with anger and, once he realized that it would be near-impossible to track Arion, an all consuming panic. With some effort, the shocked demigod turned to the blond at his side. Will looked equally stunned. Then, as if the Fates were rubbing it in, a rock hit Nico on the back of his wrist.

The Ghost King spun around, ready to unleash his anger on whoever flung that rock. Will turned around too and, in an excellent display of demigod reflexes, grabbed Nico by the back of his shirt. It was all the healer could do to keep his boyfriend from charging into a crowd of wax warriors. "Those things found us again," spat Nico, his entire body heaving with rage. Bianca had been taken from him _again_ and now he had something to slice in frustration: the minions that helped start it all. And yet Will was holding him back. "Let me go," hissed the child of darkness, barely audible through his gritted teeth.

Instead, the eerily calm child of the sun god gripped Nico's arm. "Look," Will said softly. The blond nodded to a tall figure making its way through the thick of heavily armed mannequins. When it emerged from the crowd, Nico didn't know what to think. It looked exactly the same as the other minions: pale as wax, tuxedoed, and expressionless. The only differences were the glowing symbols that swirled around its head and the staff it held. A van pulled into the parking lot, carrying at least a dozen more wax warriors. The two demigods were about to be surrounded when Nico decided to stop the van. He felt a tug in his gut and a spire of black stone erupted from the asphalt, leaving the van impaled and thirty feet in the air. The staff-carrying mannequin's eyes flashed. Then, in a voice that sounded surprisingly normal, the wax man spoke.

"Why so aggressive," it said, passing its staff back and forth between its hands. Some part of Nico's brain noted that the thing's voice had a slight Southern drawl. The rest of his brain was extremely pissed. "You're trying to surround us with armed warriors," Nico growled, "what did you expect?"

"Oh, I'm not _trying_ to surround you," soothed the symbol-wrapped wax man. "It's already done."

The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked echoed from the van above. "Now," continued the mannequin, "where did you send Aziza with that horse?"

"You mean the baby girl," Will asked, "with the blue eyes and the curly brown hair?" The wax man nodded. "We didn't send her anywhere." An ear-splittingly loud shot rang out and a bullet whistled between the demigods' heads, putting a hole in the asphalt before them. Every muscle in the teens' bodies tensed. Nico had felt the bullet fly past his hair. "No funny business," chided the wax man. "They won't shoot the pavement on their second try."

"Has it occurred to you that we might not know where 'Aziza' is," said Nico, frustration leaking into his tone. "There's an interesting thought," it replied, casually tossing its staff a bit higher. "A thought that would be more interesting if there were any truth to it," added the wax man. "And I am not in the mood for _lies_."

The son of Hades wracked his brain for ideas. Desperate, he said "What are you going to do with her, anyways?"

If its face could move, Nico had a feeling that the wax man would be wearing a slight smile. "Why, she and I are kindred spirits," the mannequin said. "We are where the line between Greek and Egyptian begins to blur. I intend to train her, to act as her mentor, if that's what you were wondering. Aziza will not be harmed."

Something clanked onto the pavement behind the wax man. After a few seconds, it was followed by another, similar sound; the sound of metal on asphalt. Suddenly, the staff-carrying wax man spoke again. Its voice had no trace of banter left, only businesslike concern: "What are you doing?"

 _I'm not doing anything_ , Nico screamed internally. Then Will caught his eye. The son of Apollo looked strained, droplets of sweat lining his brow. _Danger,_ his blue eyes warned. Somehow, Nico understood what had to be done. When the wax men fired at the demigod couple from the van, the Ghost King had already put up his hands in defense, erecting a wall of black energy around his body and Will's. For a split second, they were surrounded by total darkness. Nico was stunned; he'd never been able to do this before. He could already feel it draining his strength dangerously, making him weaker by the second. He was about to pass out when Will collapsed against him. The impenetrable wall around them disintegrated. In the harsh midday sun, the child of the Underworld glimpsed oozing piles of wax in the IHOP parking lot. Nico sank to the ground, wondering what exactly his boyfriend had done.

* * *

 **Hazel's POV:**

When Hazel walked out of the IHOP, she found herself looking at her slightly-delirious brother trying to hug her horse while his boyfriend napped in the shade of a thirty foot stone spire. A van toppled from the spire, narrowly missing Hazel's travel companions and loudly crashing into a mess of wax. "I love this horse," Nico shouted to nobody in particular. "I frikin' love this horse." He was cradling the baby girl in one arm and trying to bring Arion in for a kiss with the other. The golden-eyed girl ran up to her brother, terrified that he had gone insane. She guided his arm away from Arion and said "Nico. _Nico,_ focus on me. What the hell happened?" Hazel brushed a silky strand of Nico's hair out of his eyes. "Arion saved Bianca, that's what happened," the dark-eyed boy said with a yawn.

"Okay," Hazel said gently. "I meant, what happened to _you_?"

"Hm, well," Nico mumbled, cuddling the baby girl against his chest. "You know what I say."

"No, what?"

"With great power," announced the demigod, "comes great need to take a nap." The son of Hades lay down on the pavement. His golden-eyed sister shook her head and willed orange caution cones to appear in the Mist around them. Hazel pulled a gold nugget out of her pocket and fed it to her horse, letting the boys nap.


	9. The internet tells all

**Margo's POV:**

After Nico and his friends and his hotness left, I was back to my lonely life, trying to forget that they'd ever existed. That would've made it so much easier to on about my life, but _no_. Reminders were everywhere, from the strange creatures now visible all around me to the misty side of the internet that I'd never noticed before. Apparently, the internet is home to social networks for monsters. One of the Furies is single and looking for someone tall, strong, and hairy. _I'm into odorous guys_ , her ImmortalMingle page says. _But that's not a requirement_.

There's a less disturbing side of the Mist-shrouded internet, too, like the chat rooms and forums for clear sighted mortals. _I'm not alone_ , I thought with relief. The good feeling was short-lived; it soon became obvious that nobody else was sensing the middles of trees. I kept searching anyways, reading through pages and pages of forums. Everybody was talking about a giant war that happened a few months ago.

I mostly skipped over those posts about war - they weren't what I was looking for, after all - but then one caught my eye. I'd clicked myself way back into the archives at this point, so this post had been put up in the war's aftermath. Death toll estimated at two billion, it read. What the hell? Confused, I clicked on its link. I got directed to a previously-hidden part of Reutres News.

 _Thirteen major cities returned to the earth... Hundreds of demigods among the dead... Children of Hecate to cloak the damage..._ No. No, this couldn't be real. I'd broken into a cold sweat, the kind that I usually get from test-taking or talking to a crush. Yes, it was just words, but… What if they were true? Could the world really be blind to the deaths of two billion? So far, a ton of crazy crap had turned out to be real, but I was still wary of information gleaned from the internet. I clicked back over to the forums to see what people were saying about it.

 **I tried telling Katie about the lost cities again today** , CGardner posted. **What can I say? Hecate did a fine job with the Mist.** **  
**  
 **CGardner: I don't think Katie wants to believe you, either, Mr. Gardner. I've mentioned it to Chris a few times and he's adamant that his heroes cleaned up Gaea with almost no collateral damage,** claimed TRodriguez.

 **TRodriguez: Your kids really want to believe in that, huh? What a nice little delusion. Gaea was the freaking primordial earth goddess and these runts have the ego to think they could've gotten off easy -** MEllen

 **MEllen: Ur kid helped enable tht -** HLaRue

 **CGardner: Should we even be telling our children this stuff? They're demigods, for crying out loud. They've got enough to deal with already -** MStoll

 **MStoll: It just bugs me that Katie doesn't know how the rest of her relatives died -** CGardner

The thread went on and on. It seemed like a few hundred adults were on the site, helping each other cope with a world that couldn't see what they saw. What _we_ see, I guess. I looked up from my laptop, wanting to cleanse my brain of all the weirdness. I was in a café, sipping hot chocolate at one ounce per hour. A very tall man was standing in line... Crap, no, it was a centaur. He caught me staring at his shining palomino flanks and winked at me. I ducked behind my screen again, hoping the computer would swallow me up.

 _Look busy, look busy,_ I thought frantically. I was not ready to talk to horse-people, or do whatever that wink had implied. Trying to come up with a busy-looking activity, I started scrolling through pictures I'd taken of Nico... Don't look at me like that. I took pictures of everybody, okay, even the horse and baby. The baby... Weren't the crazy fighter teens trying to find her parents? _Maybe_ , I mused, causing a tentative smile to light up my face _, I can help with that._ After all, I had the entire internet at my disposal.

 **Will's POV:**

The children of Apollo weren't supposed to be powerful. Sure, they could shoot arrows like no one else and make people rhyme if needed. Heck, Will was a great healer, but he'd never thought of himself as _powerful_. Percy Jackson could summon hurricanes; he had power. Jason Grace, taming v _enti_ , riding the winds, and summoning lighting; he was definitely powerful. Nico di Angelo, the skinny teen that Will was clinging to right now, could summon zombies and black energy and all kinds of crazy shit. Powerful. Now Will apparently had some control over intense, wax-melting rays of sunlight. He'd never heard of another Apollo kid with that ability. Did that make him powerful, too? The half-blood wasn't sure. It was all that he could think about on the way to Los Angeles. His actions played and replayed in his mind, causing the teen's anxiety to build up like an army of evil. Worse yet, Will couldn't talk to anyone over the wind until they stopped.

The terrain under Arion's hooves rapidly changed from cracked desert earth to dry chaparral-tangled hills and finally grass. Will was caught up in wishing that Nico hadn't been so impatient to leave, that way he could've shared his super-sunbeam realization earlier. Before he could get too pissed off, the horse vaulted them over a couple of houses. The blonde's stomach dropped at the sudden dizzying flight. Just as abruptly, they were back on the ground, speeding between plain concrete buildings.

Hazel got Arion to gradually slow down before dropping the other riders off, which Will was grateful for. The last stop left a bruise on his head. He stretched and took in the sun-kissed city around him. Arion trotted into a supermarket's concrete back alley. Will turned towards Hazel, who was brushing a strand of hair out of her face and asking, "Is this the place, Nico?"

From the look on his face, Nico was about to say no. Instead, he tugged at the baby harness' straps and said "This is close enough, Hazel, it's only a few blocks away."

"Hey, is the 'DOA Recording Studios' thing just a front," asked Will, getting off the horse, "or can people actually record stuff there?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "What would a bunch of dead people need with a studio," remarked the son of Hades as he clambered down from Arion. "Hey, it couldn't hurt to ask," said Will, smirking. He went up to Nico and inspected the baby girl, who was napping against her ex-brother's black shirt. _Still breathing; check! Still cute; check!_ He stroked the baby's curly brown hair, then noticed Nico smiling at him. _He's smiling so much more around Aziza_ , thought Will. The healer took a step back from the two ex-siblings as Nico made Hazel list her supplies one more time. "Yeah, I have enough food," she said, "and enough emergency cash. Oh… I think the fruit bar I was eating fell out. But everything else is here."

"You have some spare bandages, too, right? And ambrosia," Will asked, verifying. Hazel nodded. "Good," said Nico. The pale boy did not look happy at sending his sister away, but he glossed over it with a pained smile and said, "See you later, sis." Hazel spurred Arion a little closer to Nico so that she could lean over and kiss him on the cheek. Will saw some of the pain fade from his boyfriend's eyes. "I'll be back, Nico," the gold-eyed girl said, "I promise." Before straightening herself and riding off, Hazel turned her gaze to Will, who offered a handshake. She lightly squeezed his hand. "Thanks for taking care of my brother," she whispered, with a slight smile. Then Hazel rode Arion out of the alleyway, waving to her quest-mates one last time, and was gone in a blink.

"So," started Will, "just how far away _is_ this fake recording studio?"

It took Nico a moment to reply. Eventually, he said "Maybe a mile or so. I recognize this shopping center." With that, the demigods started walking. The orange-shirted son of Apollo told Nico about what he'd done in Barstow. Aziza woke up and they stopped at a taco shop's bathroom to change her diaper. There was no baby-changing station in the men's bathroom, so Will convinced Nico to stand guard outside the women's restroom while he took care of business. When he was done, the blond discovered that he and Nico were banned from the taco shop. The son of Hades had gotten into a spat with the restaurant's owner. "An _empousa_ was going to use the bathroom," Nico explained as they walked away from the shop. "She attacked me when I wouldn't let her in. Will, I'm fine. Seriously, I'm fine. I vaporized her, no problem, but that Mexican dude thought I was scaring off his customers."

In the time it took Death Boy to say all that, Will had looked him over and found that he was not fine. "Your wrist is bleeding," the healer said tersely, guiding his boyfriend into another store, one for furniture. He sat his patient down on a mattress and brought medical supplies out of his backpack. The blond started chatting absentmindedly, a habit he'd picked up when calming demigods in the infirmary. "What if the Mist wasn't a thing," Will said casually, dressing and bandaging Nico's wrist. The shadow-traveler's eyes widened. "No, just listen," continued the healer. "Wouldn't it be so much easier to live our lives if we could ask the police for help or something? Or if there was a professional monster-catching service? Heck, even if mortals could help by pointing out weird stuff in their midst. It would be so much easier." He gave Nico's bandage a slight tug. "Better?" asked Will. Nico nodded. "But there's no telling how mortals would react to not-so-monstrous things," mused the dark-eyed boy. "Like ghosts and nymphs... And us, too. Demigods."

"What," said the son of Apollo. "You think they'd reject such dashing specimens as myself?"

"Not all of us can be a child of the sun and poetry god," chided Nico. He crossed his legs. "Some of us end up with caves and bones."

"Hm," sighed Will, goofily grinning at his boyfriend. "I guess you're right." He plopped down next to Nico. "They'd just have to get over it," the blond murmured in Death Boy's ear.

A door opened at the other end of the store, which Will now realized had no furniture other than mattresses. A seven-foot-tall man emerged. He was built like an elephant, with leathery grey skin and not one hair on his head. The man flashed a yellow smile at the teens and boomed, "Welcome to Crusty's!" Nico jumped up from the mattress, saying "Oh _hell_ no," and pulled Will out of the store. It was midday and there weren't a lot of shadows to escape into, so the demigods ran the rest of the way to the Underworld's entrance. Once they stopped in front of a building with a sign that read "DOA recording studios," Will glanced over his shoulder. The grey man hadn't followed. Taking a moment to catch his breath, Will looked up at the sign's gold letters etched in black marble. _This is it_ , the healer thought, a ridiculous smirk lighting up his face. _I'm finally visiting Nico's house._ He playfully took the younger boy's hand and in they went.

* * *

 **A/N: A tech issue made part of the story disappear, but I think it's fixed now. If any part of this has gotten boring, please let me know! The chapters to come will get into that Nico-relationship-testing that the desc. promised. I might have to bump up the rating. Guidance is appreciated now more than ever ~ Love, Margo.**


	10. Hades tries parenting

**Arion's POV:**

 _Shit_ , thought Arion. _That bastard was pointy_. The immortal stallion was rocketing across the waves of the Pacific Ocean, sea spray misting his sides, kickass warrior girl on his back. Even after thousands of years, Arion had a special love of running on water. The open space! The salty air! Stampeding random fishes! The only thing better was sharing it with Hazel.

Hazel, who would be there to witness Arion's acts of greatness.

Hazel, who always had awesome things for her and Arion to do together

Hazel, who would care if something happened to her gold-munching horse.

 _This girl of mine won't last forever_ , the horse told himself. _But I'm damn sure that I'll appreciate her while she's here._ Even if that included carrying around heavy fools along with her, because Hazel was worth putting up with any stupid Chinese baby-man. She alone could be the only person worthy of riding Arion. In all his years, the stallion might never again meet someone that he could bond with as horse-and-rider.

Distracted by this sad thought, Arion stepped on a diving seagull that he mistook for a fish. _I wonder if I broke the pointy little bugger's beak_ , mused the horse. Didn't matter; it was already too far away to see. A boat was coming up, so Arion leapt onto it in a flash and launched off of it, jumping so high that he almost hit another bird. Hazel let out an elated whoop. All too soon, they arrived in San Francisco.

Right before they made landfall, a small shudder ran through Arion. _He knows we're here_ , the stallion realized. _The smelly old shitbag knows we're here._

* * *

 **Hades' POV:**

Hades was stressed. After Gaea's almost-rise, the Underworld was flooded with the souls of two billion dead mortals. The Lord of the Dead couldn't think of a time when so many people died all at once. It was burning him out.

"You're sure you want to delay this, my Lord?" Daedalus, the legendary inventor, was standing next to Hades, advising him on the Underworld's overpass construction. They were atop a half-finished overpass now, looking out at the vast Fields of Asphodel. "Yes, yes," said Hades, unable to keep the irritation out of his tone. An urgent-looking ghost in Greek robes hurriedly floated to the god and bowed. "My Lord," he said, "actor Leonard Nimoy is about to be judged."

"This had better be important," Hades said flatly. "Who's Leonard Nimoy?"

"An iconic actor, sir," declared the ghost. "He influenced many lives -"

"You should've started with that," interrupted Hades, silencing his minion with a wave of his hand. "I'll be there shortly."

"Sir! Sir," another voice cried out, this time from behind the god. Hades hissed in annoyance, not bothering to turn around. "Sisyphus isn't in the Fields of Punishment!"

"Why do you even bother me with this anymore? He keeps escaping," the god said, voice escalating into a shout. "You should know how to find him by now."

"Y-yes, my Lord, I'm aware of that," stuttered the ghost.

The minion's unearthly glow vaguely dimmed. "It's just, this time he didn't go alone. Ted Bundy's gone, too."

Hades swore and spun around to face the cowering ghost. At that moment, another ghost's voice could be heard approaching: "Lord Hades!"

When the spirit had neared to about ten feet away, she was almost hit by a black bolt of godly energy. If Hades had bothered to look before smiting, she would've been obliterated. The poor minion froze in shock, staring at Asphodel through the hole in the overpass next to her. The god turned his gaze to her. "What is it," he spat. "Your son is here," the ghost squeaked. "He brought some friends, too."

Hades relaxed ever so slightly and, still glowering, asked "Is it that Jackson boy?"

The ghost shook her head. "No, it's a son of Apollo," she replied, shifting from side to side. "Oh, and a baby," the spirit added. The Lord of the Dead didn't know what to make of that. After a pause, he clasped his hands together as if he'd decided something. "Nico can explain to me over dinner," declared Hades. "Tell the kitchen zombies to prepare a feast."

"But sir," began the Sisyphus-announcer ghost. Hades shot him a withering death glare.

"Two billion souls are waiting," Daedalus reminded the god. The old man's ghostly face had a small frown on it.

"They can wait a little longer," growled Hades. "The last time my son invited a guest down here, it changed the fate of Olympus. I'm going to see my son. End of discussion." With that, he dissolved into darkness.

* * *

 **Will's POV:**

Will was handling the Underworld pretty well. He was a ray of sunshine lighting up the gloom, smiling at the newly-dead and receiving confused looks in return. On the way through the DOA recording studio's crowded lobby, he flipped a drachma to Charon. Nico followed that up with a little pouch full of the gold coins. _Thanks, dad_ , thought Will, seeing the ferryman of the dead's suppressed glee. Back in Vegas, Apollo had given the demigods some cash, both the mortal and magic kind.

"It's just," Apollo had sighed, looking like a sad puppy. "You're supposed to get a prophecy for your quest. I'm the god of prophecy, but I haven't been able to see a thing for months now. It's a real bummer, Will. I can't even help out my own son."

Will, for his part, hadn't been sure what to say to this sudden godly outburst. Then his dad offered him the money. Will blinked a few times in shock, but he took it. Apollo flashed him a blindingly white grin, saying "This should be useful, kiddo. Now go kick some unprophesized ass."

The god then disappeared in a flash, a lot like how Hades appeared at the dinner table where Will was seated now. "Nico," boomed the immortal. "You've decided to pay your old man a visit. Welcome, son." Nico got up from his obsidian seat and went to shake his father's hand. Hades had awkwardly gone in for a hug, but quickly corrected himself and extended a hand to Nico... At the exact moment Nico had tried matching the god's hug. Will watched in amusement as the two eventually settled on an uncomfortable arm-pat and sat down. He knew that Hades had been trying to improve the whole father/son relationship thing, but _dang._ Not even Nico was prepared for that. The long table was set with an impressive array of food, from a delicious-looking rack of lamb to olive pizza and... Was that wine? And pomegranates? Will's mouth was watering, but the pomegranates snapped him out of his hunger-induced daze. _Don't eat any Underworld food_ , Nico had warned him. Not unless you want to be a permanent guest.

The healer's boyfriend was introducing him. "Father, this is Will Solace," Nico said, gesturing to the blond. Hades nodded then, seeing the uneasy look Will was giving his food, said "Welcome, young hero. You needn't worry about your meal trapping you here for eternity. I had it brought down from the city above."

The god waved his hand, causing ghosts to come into focus all over the room. Will glanced over at Nico, who was sitting beside him. "He's telling the truth," the pale teen murmured. "This doesn't seem like Underworld food at all." A ghost drifted up to Nico, passing right through the table. Turning his attention back towards the spirits, the healer could now see that scholars, artists, and other famous figures from history had joined the party. "I haven't had a chance to properly celebrate my son's part in the victory over Gaea," the Lord of the Dead declared. "Eat! Drink! Be merry. Tonight will be a feast to rival those held on Olympus itself."

Bruce Lee sat down next to Will. Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr. sat across from him. Marilyn Monroe, Eva Perón, and several other ghosts that looked familiar took their seats. Nico was at Hades' right hand, and Will thought he could see a glimmer of pride in his boyfriend's eyes. The blond recalled something Nico once told him: "Every awesome mortal that has ever died is now in my father's domain." It was true. So Will squeezed Death Boy's hand under the table and dug into the food.

The night wore on with merriment, as Hades said it would. Nico tried wine for the first time. "Whoa," he said, shaking his head. Then he turned to his father and asked, "Do you have any water?"

Hades frowned. "I think so," he replied, "but it may or may not have Styx or Lethe in it."

"Right," Nico gulped. "Wine it is."

Many of the dead at the table were excellent conversationalists. They shared a few stories with their Lord and the demigods, but Hades had heard it all before. After finishing a full glass of wine, Nico was convinced to tell the story of what happened to him, Reyna, and Coach Hedge in Albania. Will pitched in with his reactions to hearing _that_ story for the first time, making the whole party burst into laughter. The spirits were eager for new stories, for a glimpse of the living world they left behind. So Will told them about the time he'd gotten Nico to reanimate his dead dog's skeleton. The dog still knew how to stand up on its hind legs, shred shoes, and fail at fetching things. He told them about a time when Nico had been brooding, accidentally making the grass around him wither and die. Will had surprised him with a sneak-attack hug and the grass stood back up in alarm.

Nico chatted with the ghosts and his father, too, which surprised Will. The pale teen wasn't usually one for idle chatter. He told the story of their journey here and half-coherently brought Aziza/Bianca to Hades' attention. The baby girl had been sent off with a zombie caretaker. Hades looked troubled, but he assured Nico that he'd see what could be done. Nico was only vaguely aware of that statement; the wine was getting to him. Will had less to drink, but wasn't faring so well either. Eventually, the two demigods had their seats scooted together and were breaking out into spastic giggle fits. Hades gazed at his son with a relaxed look of something-like-affection. Without saying a word, the god passed a shadow over the teens, sending them to a hallway outside of Nico's room in the palace. Greek fire flickered from the torches lining the dark hall. They were sitting on the cold, black floor, laughing about nothing in particular and leaning against the wall. Will struggled to his feet. He reached his hand down to Nico, who got halfway up before falling against the blond. Swaying slightly, the son of Apollo wrapped his arms around Nico's waist, keeping him up.

Death Boy tried to kiss his Doctor, but he missed, kissing the air by his boyfriend's face instead. He tried again and with a little help from Will, pressed their lips together softly. The pale teen still tasted like honey cakes. Will had propped Nico up against the stone wall. The kiss intensified. The healer slipped his tongue in, and he swore that he heard a quiet moan from the younger boy. They were finally together, finally alone. _I can't remember the last time he kissed me like this_ , thought Will. Nico broke away, gasping for air, and put his arms over the blond's shoulders in a warm embrace. Will kissed the Ghost King on his neck and ear, drawing him closer. He heard Nico sigh with contentment. Then the dark-eyed boy pulled away, shaking his head like a drowsy bear. "We should sleep, Will. There's a -" _yawn_ "- guest room, little bit down the hall," mumbled Nico, nodding the demigod in the right direction. Brushing his shaggy hair out of his eyes, Nico took a couple of unsteady steps towards his bedroom door. Will followed. Seeing this, the son of Hades kissed Will one last time before shooing him away. "Good night, Solace shining sunbeam," Nico babbled, slipping into his room. "Love you."

 _Wait, don't leave._ Will put out his arm, keeping the door open. A confused Nico let him in. "I love you, too," the blue-eyed teen said urgently. He surged forward and embraced Nico again, wanting more of his soft, honeyed lips. Death Boy was blushing profusely as he kissed Will again. For a few moments, the couple made their own blissful eternity. This time, Will was the one to pull away. Looking slightly startled and hurt, Nico tried to bring the healer closer. "No," Will said, shaking his head. The son of Apollo pulled his orange t-shirt over his head, then dropped it on the gold-lined black tile floor. He was feeling confident, thrilled, and... Sexy. He wanted Nico to feel the same way. Will put his strong, tanned arms around his boyfriend again. At first, Nico resisted, acting like he was a little afraid of touching the blond without a shirt. Then they were kissing again, their tongues swirling together in a heated, lusty battle for dominance.

The only sounds to be heard in the room were the gasps of the two demigods and the distant, muffled wails from the Fields of Punishment. Will began leading the pale teen to the bed, whose sheets were the only white thing he'd seen in the palace. "Oh," cried Nico, softly, grabbing Will's hand. The older teen had started to take off Nico's pants.

"Will, I..." The dark-eyed boy couldn't seem to find the right words to finish his sentence.

"Hey," Will soothed. "What is it?"

"Not now. I -" Nico was drunkenly struggling to find the words "- want to wait until we're older," he whispered.

Will made no attempt to hide his disappointment. "But you said you loved me," the half-naked teen protested.

"Solace. I do love you, Will. I do," the pale teen said shakily.

"Demigods don't tend to live that long," the blond said. "How much older do you think we're gonna get?"

Nico was silent for a moment, trying to answer. Will sighed and, in a softer tone, continued: "Do you love me, Death Boy?"

"Yes," came the reply, barely audible.

"I love you, too, Nico. That's all we need, okay? I promise you, there's no need to worry," Will said. "We're together forever. Doctor's orders."

With that, the blue-eyed teen leaned forwards, pressing his lips to Nico's. His hands wandered back down to those worn, black skinny jeans. This time, Death Boy didn't stop him.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was going to be longer, but it was getting late and I decided to break it up into two. The next chapter will continue in Nico's POV. Is this good so far? Please review! ^_^**


	11. Akhlys hits up her homeboy

**A/N: I'm not trying to kill off Solangelo. I love that ship, okay?**

* * *

On this night, a certain child of darkness was having less control over his dreams than usual. Normally, he could brush the oppressive crowd of his memories aside. Normally, he could choose what he wanted to see. But this night's dreams tossed him around like a toy boat in a hurricane. Nico was helplessly plunged into one emotional memory after the other.

At first, Nico's mind presented him with happy times. He was with Hazel and Frank, eating gumbo in the French quarter of New Orleans. The sun had just gone down, leaving its fading brightness and fiery-colored clouds. Nico felt full and contented. He could've gone to sleep right there in the worn leather booth. Then a jazz band started playing right outside the mostly-empty restaurant. Frank had glanced over at his girlfriend, who was happily swaying to the beat. Then the son of Mars got up from the booth, saying "May I have this dance?"

Hazel and Frank clumsily slow-danced around the restaurant, laughing and making the wooden floors creak. Nico looked on, happy that his sister was happy. He thought about getting up and joining the two goofballs, but the pale teen decided against that, sighing. It wouldn't be the same, dancing alone. Will couldn't tag along that day; he was visiting his mother for her birthday.

As if summoned by his boyfriend's thoughts, Will had walked into the restaurant at that very moment. Nico did a double take. "Solace, I thought you were visiting your mom," the dark-haired boy managed. Will's blue eyes were sparkling with amusement. "I was," admitted the blond. "But my heart wasn't really in it, you know? So mom let me run back to you."

Nico stood up. The son of Apollo had said it like it was nothing, but he knew that Will hardly ever got to see his mother. "You didn't have to do this," the pale demigod tried to protest. Will didn't let him finish. "It was my decision," the healer murmured, giving the younger boy's hand a light squeeze. "Actually, Nico, strike that. I didn't have a choice. Your awesome powers of sexiness dragged me back here," Will said jokingly.

The jazz band struck up a livelier tune. With a glance towards his dancing, golden-eyed sister, Nico asked "Are you going to dance, Will?"

The blonde grinned. "That depends," he said. "Are you?"

Nico felt skeletal butterflies in his stomach. He knew one dance move. He'd never been comfortable practicing it in secret and had never shown anyone, but way Will was looking at him made Nico feel like taking a chance. The dark-eyed teen winked at his boyfriend and, quickly checking over his shoulder, performed a flawless moonwalk. Death Boy was moonwalking in the middle of a New Orleans restaurant. He ended the move with a spin and extended a hand in Will's direction. "May I have this dance," Nico asked, smirking. The look on Will's face was one of pure delight. In that moment, Nico felt that the son of Apollo outshone his godly parent. They'd danced until the band went home...

Another memory overtook di Angelo's dreams. It was from a few months ago, when Nico accidentally told a bunch of Will's siblings that Will... Something. He couldn't even remember what it was; it was such a stupid little thing. The Apollo kids wouldn't leave Nico alone. They kept calling him Death Boy, which was not okay. Only Will got nickname privileges. And he thought they already knew whatever-the-thing-was, so he let it spill...

"Neeks," Will had said, confronting the son of Hades. His voice was deathly calm, lacking any hint of his usual humor. "When I tell you a secret, I expect you to keep it. That goes for all of my friends, Nico, and you especially. Gods, what made you think -"

The child of darkness had been avoiding Will's eyes throughout the whole speech. He was leaning against a dark corner of his cabin, hands stiffly gripping his aviator-jacket clad arms. Halfway into the rant, Nico melted into the shadows. Later, Will found his shaggy-haired boyfriend brooding in the grass by the woods. The blond surprised Nico with a hug and packaged cupcakes. "Nico, Nico, Nico. There's this thing called 'talking out your problems,'" whispered Will. They were lying on the dead grass, looking up at the constellations. "I'll have to teach it to you sometime," continued the healer. Nico was awash in the memory's feeling of uncertainty and cupcake frosting when his mind tumbled into an older time.

The shadow-traveler was in a McDonald's, standing in line to order Happy Meals for the dead. The ghost of King Minos was waiting outside. People kept bumping into Nico. It was maddening. Couldn't they see him at all? _This is not an empty space_ , he wanted to shout at them. _There is actually a person trying to stand here_. Ugh. He would've screamed right then, but he'd already been kicked out of one McDonald's. _Just get in, get out, and summon Bianca_ , Nico kept telling himself. He had to consciously keep himself from yelling, which is why he initially didn't make a sound when he felt the hands.

Nico shot up from his pillow, going from dead asleep to sitting up with a speed that would've impressed Arion. He was breathing heavily and the white sheets were damp with his sweat. At least, he thought it was just sweat. The events of the night before came flooding back to Nico, but it was hard to tell how much of it had been a dream. Did he really have a chat with Bruce Lee about haircuts? The pale demigod blearily shook his head, which was the current victim of a killer headache. It felt like he'd shoved his cranium into a baby's sock. Reaching across the bed for more pillows, Nico's arm touched something that felt like skin. Oh. Will.

Details about why the sleeping blond was there started coming back to Nico. He pulled up his pants, still feeling like he couldn't remember enough. _I was almost passed out_ , thought the son of Hades. _I was- I was really out of it. Oh gods, what happened?_

The shadow traveler didn't know a lot about sex. Everyone that could tell him was either dead, didn't have the time, or some combination thereof. As close as he and Will were, it was still a little weird to bring the subject up. Well, until now. Now... One of them would _have_ to say something.

Nico felt nauseous at the thought of that future conversation. He didn't know why, but he'd been feeling sick ever since he woke up, maybe before that. Again, Death Boy did not know a lot about sex. He nevertheless knew that he was supposed to be feeling proud of himself or good or accomplished or some crap. None of those feelings applied to Nico at the moment, except for maybe "crap." The dark-eyed boy had once been groped by a stranger in a McDonald's. He was only a kid back then, minding his own business and buying Happy Meals so he could perform pagan rituals. Then some creep decided that they could just feel up Nico's rear. The creep walked away with a broken nose, but the experience made Nico hate people even more. And for some reason, the headache-ridden teen was thinking of that McDonald's incident now. He was feeling more or less the same as he had then; unexpectedly violated and shocked.

 _Did I miss out on something? Is losing my virginity supposed to make me feel this bad?_ A tempest of unruly thoughts flitted around in Nico's skull as he threw off the damp sheets. Will kept sleeping peacefully. Nico tried to make a list of what he could remember. He had to make sense of it _. I was drunk,_ he thought _. Will was less drunk. We were in the hall and... And then..._

Nico groaned in frustration. The wrong memories kept crowding forwards and his headache wasn't doing him any favors. Not knowing what he would say if his boyfriend woke up, Nico melted into darkness, willing himself to appear outside of Hades' palace. For some reason, he was remembering the time he'd brought Percy to the Underworld for a dip in the Styx. As his throbbing brain replayed the son of Poseidon's reaction, Nico found some clarity. _Percy trusted me and I led him into dad's holding cell. I trusted Will and he let me do something I wouldn't have done if I'd been sober._ "Oh gods," Nico said aloud, uttering a pained laugh at his own misfortune. Will had a talent for defusing Nico's anger and grudges. Will was never too busy for his favorite snarky patient. Will was supposed to be the light to the son of Hades' inner darkness. He gave Death Boy a reason to stick around. In the silly, daydreamy moments that the blonde's presence triggered, Nico dared to think he'd found his soul mate. _And apparently, I can't trust him when I'm out of my mind,_ Nico thought bitterly. _At least he didn't do something stupid, like let me fight a horde of monsters._ _No… That would've been better. It would be less confusing and embarrassing and I could haunt him as a ghost instead of… Gods, I thought I could trust him._ _Screw this. Screw everything._

The pale teen shadow traveled again. He reappeared ten feet farther away from the palace. Nico could feel the darkness tugging at him, as it had ever since his Athena- Parthenos-transporting ordeal. He shadow traveled again, then again, hoping that a jump might take him to China or permanently turn his body into shadows. He didn't want to do it on purpose, but he wouldn't particularly care if it happened on accident. Tears burned the back of Nico's throat, but they didn't find their way onto his face. His insides were numb, cold, hollow. Dead.

The shadow jumps eventually took di Angelo to the banks of Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness. Dry amusement reverberated through the child of darkness when he realized which river he'd come to. Nico sat down on the Lethe's poppy-lined bank, dangerously close to the water. He crossed his legs and stared into the gentle, milky-white stream. _I could go for a swim_ , Nico thought wryly. _I wouldn't have to deal with any of this anymore. I could finally let go of my pain. I could just... Forget._

The sound of rushing water was Nico's only companion for what seemed like a long time. It would be so easy to forget the horrors of Tartarus, to forget every humiliation, heartache, and betrayal he'd been through. To forget he was foolish enough to believe Will could take the pain away. Nico sat by the water until his legs got stiff. Ultimately, he didn't move to throw himself into the river. What snapped him out of it was a sudden gust of wind that ruffled Nico's dark hair. He turned to face the _daimon_ that had landed behind him. "Sir," said Alecto, bowing slightly. She looked as bad as she usually did, like a demonic grandmother in tattered black robes. "I have a message for you from Lord Hades."

Nico nodded, gesturing for the Fury to continue. "He was not able to find any information concerning Aziza's parents," she said. "If the child were dead, we would be able to inspect her memories, of course. But Lord Hades felt that death would negate the efforts you have made to save her."

"Great," muttered the demigod. "You're telling me that not one spirit knew anything about this kid?"

This seemed to disturb Alecto, who shifted her gaze uneasily. "There are billions of recently-dead," the Fury remarked. "It would be impractical to ask them all. However, my Lord, I assure you that we asked all the spirits who were _likely_ to know."

Nico scoffed. "Which spirits were those?"

"Mortals who, in life, were responsible for issuing notices about missing children."

Nico put his head in his hands, sighing. "Thank you, Alecto. Tell my father I appreciate his efforts." The Fury gave a curt nod and was gone with a flap of her leathery wings. Nico's thoughts turned to his sisters. Both of them were alive and had been dead at one point. He would do anything to make sure they stayed living. For the hundredth time, Nico wondered if he'd end up raising Bianca. He had no idea how to be a parent, but Bianca had taken care of her little brother for most of her life. If her rebirth parents couldn't be located, he would definitely be there for the baby girl, no matter what.

A random hellhound splashed into the Lethe, almost getting Nico wet. He scrambled away from the water's edge, heart pounding, and slipped into shadows before the beast could climb out of the river and shake itself dry. The son of Hades reappeared in his father's courtyard, silently chiding himself for not thinking about who would look after Bianca if he lost his memory. He steadied himself against a wall, still shaken from the close call with Lethe. Nico collected himself, then strode to the center of the courtyard, where a tall fountain of water glinted with otherworldly rainbows.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering," intoned Nico, pulling a drachma from his pocket and tossing it into the colored mist. "Show me Hazel Levesque."

"Did you find anything," Hazel asked as soon as she appeared in the rainbow. She was at a little round table in a brick-walled café, eating an ice cream sundae. Arion leaned into the picture, licking what was apparently a sundae of his own. Mortals walked by the two fudge-smeared friends, completely oblivious. If he'd been in a better mood, Nico would've asked why she took a horse into a café. Instead, he said "Nothing. You're gonna need to capture Nereus."

When Nico said the word "Nereus," Arion huffed and prodded the Iris message with his nose. The image blurred and Hazel could be heard in the background: "Hey! Arion, you hate it when _you_ get interrupted. Get out of the -"

Eventually Hazel was back in view, with a new streak of vanilla ice cream covering half her face. "I understand," the gold-eyed girl said, in a very serious tone for somebody smeared with sugar. Nico gave a short nod and cut off the message. He immediately wished he'd said "I love you, Hazel" or "Good luck." Too late. _Fates protect her_ , Nico prayed silently. _She's the only loved one left that I can count on._

* * *

 **A/N: Special thanks to baby Cyclopes for the new reviews! Constructive critism is always welcome. Epic battles and more relationship-testing ahead.**


	12. Hazel is over 9000

**Hazel's POV:**

The iris-message had come as Hazel Levesque contemplated her surroundings. She was in a charming little chocolate factory's café for visitors. The air smelled like it could've been pure sugar and was nearly enough to make someone hyper all by itself. Half of the mortals in the place were fooling around with cell phones and other electronic thingamajigs. _Would these people even notice Arion if I took away the Mist? People and technology get stranger every time I look at them,_ thought Hazel. Occasionally, it was fun to wonder if her younger self could've imagined eating sundaes with an immortal horse in a 21st century café, waiting for a magical rainbow message that would tell her whether or not she had to fight a god. "Life has changed so much," the gold-eyed girl said aloud to no particular person. Arion bobbed his head in agreement. At least, after so many decades, sweet things remained delicious. Then Nico was there in an iris-message, telling his sister that he hadn't found anything about Aziza's parents. _I can take on Nereus_ , Hazel reminded herself, fingering the spool of imperial gold wire tied to her belt loop _._ She noticed that her brother seemed grim, which was a bit startling. He was radiating darkness so intensely, the way he used to before he met Will. It's _like old Nico came out of the past_ , thought the daughter of Pluto as a little chill went down her spine. Before she could ask what was bothering him, her stallion tried to mess up the IM. Oh Arion. Too soon, Nico cut off the message. _On with the quest, then._

Hazel walked her horse out of the café, using the Mist to make mortals feel like getting out of the way. The demigod still wasn't sure what, exactly, constituted an abuse of her power, but she never stole anything and thought that should be enough. She and Arion walked for a few paces, stopping by stone fountain full of water-spouting cherub statues. "All right," said Hazel, moving to mount her horse. "The best place to start looking would be where I saw him last, with some seals." Arion sidled away from his rider, worry apparent in his dark, gentle eyes. Confused, Hazel tried getting on the horse once more. He backed up, hooves clicking on the ground's dusty cobblestones. "Hey," Hazel said, trying to soothe the stallion. "There's a little baby depending on us, remember? This has to be done." Arion shook his mane and nickered something at her, avoiding his rider's gaze. The gold-eyed girl sighed, wishing for the hundredth time that Percy were here to translate. She gingerly put her arms around the horse's neck in an affectionate hug and said, "Arion, I'm going to get Nereus to help us. I'd really prefer it if you were by my side."

For a moment, Hazel stood by the immortal, just holding him close. The horse's strong inhales and exhales did something that felt like a sigh. Then Arion backed out of Hazel's embrace and motioned for her to climb on. She smiled, hoisting herself up onto his back, and they raced out of the cobbled plaza.

Of course, the plan just _had_ to backfire before they even saw the salty old sea god. Arion had made his way back to the ocean, so he could speed around unimpeded, and they easily found the place where Nereus was supposed to be. The seals were there. The smell, judging from the fainting seagulls, was also there. Nereus, however, was nowhere in sight. _Maybe we should check farther inland_ , thought Hazel. She spurred Arion in the direction of the docks. The spine-jarring impact came out of nowhere.

The daughter of Pluto was flung off of her horse and slammed into the ocean over and over again as her body flew over the seawater like a skipping stone. Her battle reflexes kicked in, sharpening her senses for just long enough for her to register a massive shape in the sea behind her. Then Hazel was plunged beneath the ice-cold waves, too suddenly and violently to know which way was up or down. She thrashed around blindly, trying to swim to the surface. The powerful ocean currents pummeled Hazel like a gang of wrestlers, overcoming the demigod's attempts to control her own swimming. Her heart was fluttering with panic. Salt water had invaded her nose. With some difficulty, Hazel opened her eyes, letting the seawater give her eyeballs an angry sting. The first thing she saw was Arion kicking a black-and-white killer whale in the nose. Surprisingly, the horse moved with grace underwater, not at all how one might expect an underwater horse to act. _Son of Neptune,_ Hazel remembered. _I almost forgot Arion was a son of Neptune._ The gold-eyed girl hadn't been prepared to get submerged; her lungs were screaming for air. The surface was a good twenty feet up…

Then the whale opened its vicious, toothy mouth and tried to take a bite out of Arion, who barely managed to dart out of the way. Hazel was desperately kicking herself to her next breath of air, but she wasn't moving fast enough. So far, the killer whale had ignored her and gone after the immortal horse. Luckily Arion had the good sense not to lead the beast near his rider, where it might accidentally swallow her up. _We had to seek out a sea immortal_ , Hazel's oxygen-deprived brain complained as she struggled towards the surface. _It couldn't have been another immortal made of gemstones or gold or something else I can control…_ She cast her senses out in futility, just to confirm her ridiculous lack of power over the situation. To Hazel's surprise, she sensed a little cold spot directly on her hip. _The gold wire._ The demigod thought a stream of words that would've made the nuns at St. Agnes wash her mouth, mentally face-palming herself for not remembering the imperial gold was there. She fumbled to find the tip of the wire on the spool, kicking the water frantically to keep from sinking. A loud squeaky wail, like a car horn being strangled by a windmill, echoed from the attacking sea creature. Hazel glanced up and saw golden ichor bleeding from a scratch on Arion's flank, clouding the water.

She hadn't planned on hurting the monstrous black-and-white whale. Then again, that was before it hurt her horse. The second that Hazel found the imperial gold wire's tip, she willed the wire to shoot through the water. Faster than a bullet, it spanned the distance between her and the whale. She flicked it into the whale's uppermost fin, then directed the wire back toward herself. The length of gold went taut. Hazel had only a moment to grab hold of the wire before she was dragged through the water. The killer whale had been swimming a little closer to the surface, but it was enough. As the beast tried to jerk around engulf the demigod in its hungry maw, Hazel rapidly started winding up the gold by its spool until she was positioned behind the pierced fin. She managed to stand up on the speeding whale's back and get a brief, raw gulp of air before being plunged back into the ocean's chill. Not giving Hazel a chance to think, the whale promptly began to change shape. Its whole form became smaller, shrinking away from the spot where the demigod had strung the wire through it until it had melted away from the imperial gold completely. The creature was now a tiny, silvery fish that was swiftly darting off into the sea.

For one terrifying, irrational moment, Hazel thought she'd skewered Frank in whale form. Then her brain started working again and she remembered that Nereus was also a shape-shifter. She sent her wire after him again, but Arion was there first. The stallion nimbly swam underneath Hazel so that she was on his back once more and briskly caught up with the fish, trying to snap him up with his sharp horse-teeth. Silvery fish-Nereus whirled on Arion and changed shape again, this time changing into a large, long fish with a swordlike nose and a tall fin that almost spanned its entire length. Nereus slashed at the horse, who jerked backwards, only for the daughter of Pluto to block the sea god's assault with her _spatha._ The attacker now turned his attention to Hazel, who had to swing the sword with all her might to spar underwater. Fish-Nereus swung at her from her left. She blocked. In a twitch, he changed direction and stabbed at her right. She could only lean away; he slashed her shirt. Arion tried to help, tried to get his rider out of danger.

Hazel's purple t-shirt had been torn; her horse was injured. She and Arion were fighting a sea god in his own domain. But they still had the golden wire. Nereus lunged at the demigod, renewing his attack. In a reflex, as if the wire was an extension of herself, she strung the gold around the fish, binding him like a spider immobilizing its prey. In a heartbeat, Nereus was mummified in golden wire. His sword-nose had been inches from her face. The sea god thrashed and twisted himself, trying to break free. Hazel only tightened the bonds in response. She felt him shrinking again, shifting away from the wire. The wire was manipulated to accommodate this; Hazel bound the gold until it was an airtight ball with Nereus inside. She could feel him bumping up against the metal as a small fish. Arion swam to the surface, with Hazel cradling the golden ball to her chest. The stallion beneath her began making his way towards the docks of San Francisco.

* * *

 **Will's POV:**

Will woke up with a sleepy smile on his face. He'd been dreaming of dancing on clouds with Nico. They laughed and hugged puppies and ate ice cream and it was basically the best dream ever. He sat up from the inviting warmth of his boyfriend's bed and yawned, stretching. He turned toward the pillows where he'd laid Nico to rest, knowing that his sweet angelic lover would be there to greet him… _What the flippin' Furies?_ Will was greeted by empty pillows and wadded blankets. Looking around the room for any sign of the child of darkness, the blond saw a crib in the corner of the room, where a zombie servant was putting Aziza down to rest. The zombie left the room without acknowledging Will, leaving him more confused than ever. He reluctantly brushed off the warm bedcovers and ventured into Nico's bathroom. The healer's reflection stared back at him from every polished black wall and tile. A plain, standard toothbrush rested on a half-empty tube of toothpaste by the sink, but it was bone-dry. No Death Boy in sight. Had Nico been gone for a long time or had he left without brushing his teeth? Will shook his head in bewilderment. _He would've left a note or something, wouldn't he?_

 _Maybe he's gone because of something that happened last night_ , Will thought. The blond wouldn't put it past Nico to run off to someplace and brood. And yet… Why _would_ he? Last night was perfect. Their first time had played out better than Will always imagined. Passionate kissing, heated whispers of "I-love-you," and finally being free to enjoy each other's bodies, completely unrestricted. Then, as the son of Apollo went over it in his mind, something clicked into place. Every minute of their experience was still fresh in his head, since he hadn't been drunk to the point of absolute forgetfulness. All the same, one piece of the picture was missing: consent _._ At no point during the night had Nico said yes to his boyfriend's more intrusive advances. Shame welled up in Will as he realized what he'd done.

The healer weakly trudged over to Nico's bed and sat down on the edge. His mother's voice rang out clearly from his memories, almost as if she were lecturing Will in person. "I'm raising you to be a good boy, William," she'd say, a tiny wrinkle of concern creasing her forehead. She'd sweep back a strand of her light auburn hair, put her hands on her jean-clad hips and tell him, "You never hit anyone you love, honey. You never tell them mean things, 'cause they might believe 'em."

"I know, Mama. I know this already. 'Never hurt people, ever,' I got it."

"Didn't stop you from pushing Isabella," Mama remarked.

"Wha -" started Will, "I mean, but she was bullying."

"Mm," she said in agreement. "Yeah, that little girl was being a douche. The point here, baby, is that I've got to know if you know when you're hurting someone."

Young Will looked at his Mama in confusion. Wasn't it obvious, when you're hurting someone? Shaking her head, Mama continued with a tired sigh: "You know well enough not to punch the other kids, right honey? Unless it's in self-defense." The little boy nodded. "And we went over name-calling?" Another nod. "And you know that it's not okay to touch someone else's private parts or let someone touch you without permission?" Will nodded a third time, almost rolling his eyes at this one. Then a thought popped into his head, since he'd just learned about sex, and he said to his mother: "Does that mean no sex without permission either?"

This question earned him a pained look from Mama, who replied with "No, honey. That's called rape."

Will, sitting on the edge of the bed, put his head in his hands. Mama had explained rape to him. It's the most intimate, embarrassing violation. It can leave victims living in constant fear, unable to go about their daily lives. The words poured out of her. She told him that his own father had raped people, many years ago. Her tear-choked voice resonated in the blonde's skull. _Why do I make her cry so much when we talk about stuff,_ young Will had wondered. "Promise me you'll never do that to anyone," she'd hoarsely whispered. The fear that her baby might inherit his dad's primitive trait was written all over her face. "Promise me you'll never be a rapist."

Sometimes, Will wished that his mother didn't feel the need to tell him so much. True, he'd calmly known how babies were made when the other kids in his class still thought kissing made girls pregnant. But then there were the emotional outbursts, the silly promises that he made just to comfort his fretting Mama. _They weren't all silly promises,_ the son of Apollo thought numbly as he sank down, off of the bed's edge. He slid to a stop at the bottom, hugging his knees to his chest. _If it were a silly promise, I should've been able to keep it, even while drunk and horny. Gods..._

 _I hope Nico isn't lost._

* * *

 **Hazel's POV:**

Hazel didn't let Nereus out of his ball until they were on dry land. She dismounted Arion and walked him into one of the shops on the beachfront, a gift shop full of jewelry. The masses of bracelets and charms on the shop's rotating stands were cheap, but they had enough traces of precious metals in them for her to control. A tiny, evil voice in the back of Hazel's mind was yelling " _Who's the boss now, you slimy sea bitch?!"_

All of the mortals in the store suddenly felt like building sandcastles. Once the last one was prodded outside by the Mist, Nereus was unceremoniously dumped onto the cheap linoleum flooring. The silvery little fish gave his abductor a nasty look from his saltwater puddle before ballooning up into the form of the decrepit old man she'd seen a few months ago. The sea god's smell hit Hazel like a dank fog of spoiled seaweed, dead fish and brine. Adjusting his tattered bathrobe with a look of complete indignation, Nereus huffed and said, "You'll be wanting some amazing prophetic wisdom, I suppose?" His beady eyes flicked to something behind Hazel… The ocean, most likely. Without thinking about it, the demigod tilted all the jewelry towards her captive immortal. "Whoa there, girlie, I know when I'm beat," Nereus said gruffly. "You get one question, daughter of Pluto. Make it quick."

"I need to know the current address of the parent or guardian that takes care of Aziza, who formerly lived as Bianca di Angelo," Hazel stated. She'd been practicing those words since leaving Vegas.

"Address? You think I know these temporary, insignificant mortal details? Miss Levesque," the old man sneered through his filthy facial hair. "I'm _good_ at this whole seer business _,_ but the Fates only know I'm not _that_ good. Luckily for you, what you said was not a question."

The girl shifted uneasily. Her first instinct was to ask, "Then what _can_ you tell me?" She barely bit that comment back and was suddenly nervous about how easily she could blow her single question. "Tell me the names of Aziza's reincarnation parents."

Nereus grinned a yellowing, gap-toothed grin. "Names," he said slowly. "Names have power, girlie. You're onto something, if you could just ask an actual question already."

Hazel glared at the old man of the sea for moment, then finally said "There is a young girl, a toddler, that I helped rescue from a Sphinx in Las Vegas. She has blue eyes and curly, light brown hair. She is the reincarnation of Bianca di Angelo, a daughter of Hades. What are the names of the parents that most recently biologically conceived her?"

The fat old man let out a low whistle before saying, "Not leaving much room for vague answers or trickery, are ya? The young couple's names are Destin Williams Jr. and Kelly Smith-Williams. Good luck finding them."

The gold-eyed girl quickly shaped the names out of a portion of her wire, as a sort of note for later. Nereus stood silently, watching her. "I'm really getting sick of heroes beating me up for information," the old man stated. "I'm usually more peaceful, Hazel. You heroes often have no reason at all to thread imperial gold through my fins."

"Is that so," Hazel murmured, wondering why he hadn't melted into seawater like Nico said he would.

"It's all too true, yes," Nereus continued. "Aren't you going to apologize?"

Giving the sea god a weird look, Hazel asked "What? Why would I do that? You attacked me and scratched up my horse."

"Oh, I _know_ Arion. I knew he could take it. You're the one who came here to forcibly restrain me."

"Fine," the demigod teen said, making a noise of mild disgust. _My horse was bleeding. You almost drowned me. My horse was bleeding, brine breath!_ "I'm sorry that people keep beating you up, ok?"

"I should not have to take Minotaur dung from anyone, understand? I'm not gonna go easy on you demigods anymore."

"All right. Okay then," Hazel was saying. Nereus had already dissolved into sea spray. Shaking her head, the daughter of Pluto pulled a drachma out of her pocket. The old man's words were still floating on the surface of her thoughts. _Good luck finding them._ Maybe Nico could get some ghosts to track the Williams down? Gods, but that could scare the poor couple to death. She had to contact her brother so they could plan out their next course of action. Hazel fanned herself lightly and guided Arion out of the store, in search of a rainbow.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry about this longer-than-usual pause between updates. I clicked on a single Buzzfeed video and what happened after that is foggy, but I emerged two days later without the ability to form original thoughts. It's a miracle that I recovered so soon. Also, **thank** **you** very much for the new reviews, **baby** **Cyclopes** and **LeoFlamin'Valdez**! No worries; Solangelo is undying.


	13. Minds are lost & probably won't be found

**A/N:** I didn't want to publish this so soon, not before the next chapter was ready. But it's been so long. I just want to feel like I haven't given this up. If anyone's still here to read this, I apologize for the delay. There's no good excuse for just _stopping_ like that. And if anyone's here, reading this right now...

I'm sorry that this chapter might not have the most satisfying ending.

* * *

Nico was leaning over a polished steel countertop in Hades' kitchen when the undulating horse rump appeared right in front of his nose. He nearly spat out chunks of the burrito he was eating. Instead he swallowed, coughing on some chewed-up bean particles, and stumbled away from the Iris-message. Hazel's yelling blared out from the screen of mist: "Nico, I got the names of Aziza's parents!"

Untangling himself from the skeleton minion he'd backed into, Nico shouted a reply at the image of Arion's fast-moving horse butt: "That's great news! What are they?!" Then, as an afterthought, he added: "And Hazel, where are you?!"

"I'm on my way out of San Francisco," his sister said loudly. Nico realized that she was sending the message in a rainbow kicked up by Arion's ocean-running. "The people we're looking for are Destin Williams Jr. and Kelly Smith-Williams!"

"Is that all the information Nereus gave you?"

"Yeah," Hazel said. "Brine-breath was extremely picky about his question policy!"

Names. _How_ _am I supposed to know what country, what city, what HOUSE Bianca's family is in from a pair of names?_ It seemed like an impossible task. A small, calm voice in the back of Nico's mind was telling him not to get frustrated. _It's ok. There may be seven billion people in the world, but at least you have the names now. You'll figure something out_ , the voice soothed. Then he noticed how his inner calm sounded a lot like Will Solace.

Gods, _Will_...

An obsidian spike erupted from the kitchen floor, wrecking through zombies and metal appliances with a screech. Nico's grip tightened, destroying his burrito. "Nico, what's happening over there?!" Apparently, the destruction of Hades' kitchen was heard through the Iris-message. "It's fine, Hazel," the pale demigod said, unintentionally putting more anger into his tone than he'd meant to. Wiping the beans and salsa off of his hands, Nico distanced himself from his rage and continued, "Would you mind saying the names again, sis? So I don't forget."

Hazel spelled out the names of Bianca's new parents. The son of Hades knew how much his sister was focusing to keep her dyslexia from getting in the way. He wanted to thank her so much for what she'd done, but he was also concentrating, trying to engrave the names into his memory. "Thanks," Nico yelled into the mist screen, once she'd finished. _I appreciate this so much. I'm sorry for putting you through bullshit from my past. I love you._ He thought those words, wanting to say them to Hazel. It should've been easy. But no; after what happened with Will, expressions of love felt cursed, as if the pale demigod would involuntarily recoil and shiver if they came near. There was a pause. Arion's breathing entered the message from one side of the IM. The sounds of zombies knitting themselves back together filtered through from Nico's side. When the Ghost King finally managed to say the words he wanted to, it came out as a breathy whisper: "Hazel, you don't know how much this means to me. Thank you so, so much. I -"

This time, the message was cut off from Hazel's end. It looked like some object had fallen, slicing through the message. Blinking in shock, Nico hastily started scanning the room for something he could use to make a rainbow. He turned around. He swore. A familiar-looking pale brunette had been standing behind him.

"Margaret - Margo - whatever, just what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Um... I, uh -" Margo stammered idiotically. For some reason, she was wearing 1940s clothes like a spirit of the past, which was strange because she was obviously alive. Despite being in the Underworld, looking a few inches taller, and having nasty purple bruises on her neck and face, Margo was still her flesh and blood self. The Mist-shorn girl nervously fiddled with her hair and spoke in a deliberately steady tone: "I wanted to help you."

"That is not an explanation. I get enough of that cryptic shit from gods and monsters, ok? Di immortales," Nico groaned. "You know what; right now I don't even care about how you got here. This is not a safe place for living mortals to be. Get out of the Underworld, Margo. I have to -"

"Wait, Nico – just hold on a sec. I found your little toddler's parents!"

The pale girl was looking Nico squarely in the eyes, as if she knew the impact her declaration would have on him. His irritation at having the conversation with Hazel interrupted was gone, only to be replaced with dizzying confusion. "How is that possible," the child of darkness murmured. "You're only a mortal."

Margo kept talking resolutely: "I brought them to LA, Nico. The Williams were devoting every waking moment to finding their baby girl. They're magicians of the fifty-first nome. They didn't have too much trouble tracking Aziza to Las Vegas. Plus, they set up a Facebook page with a ton of pictures of the kid. From that, I was able to locate the couple and tell them about your plans. So yeah, they're waiting for us – for Aziza – on the surface."

* * *

 **Margo's POV:**

I was sure that Nico would ask a ton of questions about how I'd found my way into the Underworld. You'd think he'd be a little curious about why I was taller, limping, and dressed differently, right? And then his gorgeous onyx eyes would be fixated on me as I explained and then he'd be ever so impressed and then babies. Yes, that's exactly how it went in my head; straight to semi-Italian babies. Instead, Nico pushed past me once the information sunk in, serious-faced and not saying a word. I followed him into the torch lit black halls. "Hey," I called after the demigod, barely able to keep up with his brisk pace. "Nico, where are you going?"

The half-blood replied indistinctly, still walking away from me. Exasperated, I broke into a sprint. Nico disappeared around a corner. By the time I joined him, he was in a gloomy courtyard, tossing a drachma into a psychedelic water fountain. A woman's voice answered his chant: " _The person you are attempting to contact cannot be reached at this moment. Please try again later._ " The pale teen muttered something angrily and fished another gold coin out of his pocket. This time, he used a different chant: "O Fleecy, do me a solid; show me Hazel Levesque." The image of a young woman with explosively frizzy white hair appeared in the fountain. She had a pained look on her face. "I'm serious, Nico," she said. "I can't seem to find Hazel right now. I don't know who or what is doing this, but your message is not getting through."

"Fleecy, please try again," Nico implored.

"I've tried three times already, hon. She's being blocked."

Nico persisted, in vain, to convince Fleecy to connect him to Hazel. I'd taken some papers out of my pocket, half-wishing that my phone would work. I hated feeling so powerless, being in a new place without internet access. Plus, I'm not sure where my ghost guide wandered off to. _I can't believe I paid that creep forty-five drachmas… He's not even guiding me_. I was wrapped up in my thoughts, wondering if I was still bleeding anywhere from the night before when Nico's message with Fleecy ended. We were left with an awkward silence that I didn't know how to fill. The dark-haired boy leaned against the fountain's high rim, touching one hand to his worry-creased brow.

"How do I know," he asked, turning his weary gaze towards me, "whether you're telling the truth?"

I straightened out the papers I was holding, glad I'd brought them out, and presented them to Nico. One was a picture of Aziza and her parents, who struck me as very kindly-looking people. Destin smiled out from the picture with grey eyes and close-trimmed light hair, while Kelly had darker hair and joyful blue eyes. Printed on my other piece of paper was a copy of Aziza's birth certificate. Nico gingerly took both documents from me, scrutinizing them. When he looked up at me again, his expression remained maddeningly unreadable.

"The fastest way up is shadow travel," he said eventually.

My stomach lurched at the thought of trying to shadow travel again. That was originally how I was supposed to get to Erebus, but when the guide's huge black dog ran – with me on its back – into a shadowy wall, I felt a shock go through me and was thrown backwards. My guide called the dog back had me try that a few more times; apparently, Margos don't mix with shadows. I shook my head, forced my panic down and, hating myself for giving up the chance to hold hands with Nico, told him that I couldn't get back up that way. He looked vaguely exasperated at my whole explanation, even more so when I said, "You go ahead. I'll walk."

"Look, I don't know how you're down here and still alive," the Italian said. "But I'm not going to let you risk your life getting back to LA, especially –" he hesitated, as if he wanted to stop talking "– especially since the Williams will recognize you. Not… Not that wouldn't take you back up anyways. I'm not one of those jackass demigods that lets innocent girls go off when… Ugh, whatever. Never mind, just follow me."

 _Is it just me, or does he seem more unstable than last time?_ One half of me was antsy at being alone with a possibly insane, kitchen-crushing godling on a walk through hell. The other half of me was inanely giddy at the thought of a long, dreamy walk through hell with Nico's sexiness. Then both halves of me beat each other up in a self-reminder that he's both gay and taken. "Um, thanks," I squeaked. We began walking out of Hades' palace. "You're sure you can't shadow travel," Nico asked me, as though asking would change the fact that a Margo/darkness margarita can _not_ happen. I reassured him once more that, no, I can't. "In that case, we'll be walking for a while," he sighed. "So tell me, how _did_ you get down here? And why are you limping?"

* * *

 **Hazel's POV:**

Marie Levesque's daughter thought she was used to the feeling of having blackouts. Evidently, blacking out while on a speeding, water-defying horse felt a lot different. The last thing Hazel saw was Nico's face as she fell through the Iris-message, straight into the watery depths. A foreign presence in her mind made itself felt immediately. "Mulatto," a man's voice said, echoing through the darkness in a slight southern drawl. If she'd been aware of her body, Hazel would've tensed. Nobody had called her by _that_ in over seventy years. "Darlin'" the voice continued, "you're going through quite a lot for that scrawny white kid, aren't you?" Strangely, the blackout hadn't taken its demigod victim into a memory. She was only aware of a dark void and the intruder's words.

"Nico's my brother," Hazel told the voice, sounding more than a little defensive. _He's family. I owe him my life,_ she thought. He'd become one of the people she trusted most in the world. _Since when does the voice in my head want to diss my loved ones?_ Clearing her head of unflattering Latin words, Hazel addressed the man again: "Hasn't anyone told you that it's rude to invade someone's mind without introducing yourself?"

"How cute. She expects an introduction from me."

Hazel had a murky sense of the man's patronizing smile. He was seriously starting to irritate her. She was weighing the satisfaction of telling him off against the risk of his undefined wrath when he stated, "Let me be brief. Your body is drowning. You will answer my questions, clearly and without hesitation. If you can do this to my satisfaction, you might be saved. If you fail me, you might die at the hands of a higher power… Again."

 _Seriously? Pedicabo te spuria vitulamina…_ _Focus, focus – I'm not going to let some random racist end my life. I am a Daughter of Pluto and the conjurer Marie; I am stronger than this disembodied intruder. I can – I can get myself to wake up, or…_

"Why did the gods deem you worthy of being brought back to life? Answer quickly."

After sternly telling herself that _now is the time to think up a plan,_ Hazel's mind abruptly became devoid of helpful information. She scrambled to put her train of thought back on track, but the ideas were gone. The demigod didn't see what choice she had but to answer the voice's question. "They didn't. I was smuggled out of the Underworld and back into the land of the living."

"I see. I understand that this has been done before, in the past?"

"There… have been attempts," Hazel managed, struggling to keep him in the dark. "Orpheus tried it with his wife, and -"

"Medea," the voice urged, as if the very intensity of the command would compel her to obey. "I don't want to hear about the failed attempts. Tell me about the successes. Medea was recently in the land of the living, wasn't she?"

Panic bubbled up within the daughter of Pluto as she realized that all her thoughts were on display, not just the ones directed at her assailant. And once he mentioned it, she couldn't help but think of the stories Piper had told her –

"Yes, that's it," the intruder murmured.

-the information she knew about the Doors of Death-

"Thanatos," the voice said, forcing her thoughts to comply, "Your journey back to life."

Even as her mind volunteered the information and she struggled to hide it, Hazel became aware of the stranger's thoughts pressing up against her own. _Shaun,_ she realized, _his name is Shaun –_

"Nico," Shaun's voice commanded, this time with a dose of uncertainty. He knew that she knew. He was trying to retain control, to distract her. But he'd already made a mistake. Nico was always in her thoughts; bringing him up didn't distract her at all.

"Why are you doing this," Hazel asked, seeing if she could turn the tables. Sure enough, Shaun's memories flooded forth. _Unfairness. Two different worlds, Greek… Egyptian. So much untapped potential. Begin anew. The Keep will-_

A head-splitting shriek, like metal against metal, disrupted her concentration. Shaun tightened his hold on her consciousness. "Next question," he hissed, not bothering to hide his smugness at the fact he was able to subdue her, "What is your father's _ren_?"

A strange feeling came over the gold-eyed girl. She wasn't familiar with the word he'd used… But she felt uneasy, all the same.

"I – I don't know," Hazel choked out. She felt like she was lying. That couldn't be, though. She didn't even –

"You _must_ know, sweetheart. It's a part of you."

 _No._

"Gods don't have DNA," the intruder purred "and you're still, somehow, half-god. Tell me, honey, how do you think that works?"

 _No._ Hazel frantically tried to clear her mind, but she could feel the magician searching, plummeting closer and closer to… Something.

"A part of the god's being…" Shaun's voice whispered in a way that made his captive want to squirm, "is an integral part of yourself, Hazel. Your powers,"

 _No, no –_

"- your very being, your entire life -"

 _No!_

"- they stem from magic. Your father's magic; your father's _secret name._ "

There was a sound like crystal cracking. The magician's voice echoed through her core, and she could feel her body shuddering through layers of foggy unconsciousness. And, as she'd thought of the Doors of Death before, she now thought of the name her adversary was searching for.

"Excellent, darlin'," the voice cooed as it faded away. "You've been a great help."

The daughter of Pluto was left alone in the darkness.

* * *

 **Margo's POV:**

I probably should've been paying more attention to where I was stepping, since the waters of the river next to us smelled extremely shoe-dissolvingly toxic. Instead, I was too focused on - you guessed it - Nico. I don't know what he and Will said to each other in that bedroom, but when di Angelo walked out with Aziza in his arms, ignoring the teary-eyed blond trailing after him, I guessed that it wasn't good. We'd been silent for the entire walk out of the palace, except for Will's sniffles. I couldn't see Nico's face; he was holding Aziza close, as if he were both emotionally hiding behind her and physically protecting her from... From Will, maybe. He subtly flinched away when the son of Apollo tried to speak up. The "don't touch my kid" vibe coming off of Nico was strong enough to deflect heat-seeking missiles. Now, along the trash-strewn riverbank of the Styx, I was feeling monumentally shut out and resigned myself to wordlessly counting the wedding cake toppers buried in the slick pebbles. Tiny, disfigured wax brides and grooms were all that remained of some soul's dream of marriage. That one had a seductress' red hair... That one was missing both arms. By the eighth cake topper, we were halfway to the Underworld's exit and I kept having a powerful urge to say something, only to shy away from Nico's dark glare or Will's look of helplessness. I am not good with people; what if I make things worse?

Unsurprisingly, Solace was the first one to see the psychopath waiting for us up ahead. He didn't pipe up about it until we were, like, twenty feet away. Come on, Will, the guy had Hazel slumped over at his feet and you warned us when we were practically stepping on him? I silently cursed the fact that I'd been paying more attention to bits of trash than to where we were going. Then again, my wheeze of fear wouldn't be much more noticeable than the healer's misery-scratched voice attempting a call to arms. "Nico," Will uttered meekly. The son of Hades ignored the faint blond. "Nico," he repeated, this time with a gentle shove to his boyfriend's shoulder. "Look!"

The pale Italian shot a withering gaze in the healer's direction, but it didn't last long. He quickly noticed his passed-out sister and the man standing over her. Without taking his eyes off the stranger, Nico moved to hand the baby to Will. Then he stopped himself mid-motion and gave Aziza to me instead. _Um, thanks?_ I was keenly aware of how much this act of distrust hurt the son of Apollo. I didn't say anything about it, though; I simply shifted the little girl in my arms and stood back as the Ghost King drew his weapon.

The stranger had a sickly paleness fit to rival Nico's and a stringy mop of blond hair around his face. Roughly woven clothing hung loosely about his tall, skinny frame. His eyes were closed and sharp fragments of whispers flew from his lips; it was indistinct, but he seemed to be chanting in some archaic language. I watched nervously as the child of darkness crept forwards, his footsteps crackling on the rocky riverbank. I don't know why, but I'd broken out into a cold sweat, which was very uncomfortable in the dank Underworld air. Will looked nervous, too – he hadn't come equipped for combat. Suddenly, the stranger's eyes opened. My heart did a nervous little jump at his piercing gaze, as did my entire body. Antsy, I watched as he took a step towards Nico. "Stand down," the Ghost King growled, still advancing with his sword, "back away from my sister."

Instead, the stranger lunged forwards and impaled himself on Nico's sword, sending Will and I scrambling backwards in alarm. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I watched helplessly as an identical stranger popped out of nowhere, grabbed the impaled stranger's body, and used it to twist the stygian blade out of Nico's grasp. Someone had cried out in alarm. It might've been me; it could've been Will or Nico. Before anyone could react, the magician was holding the sword to Hazel's throat. _A wax servant,_ I realized, taking in the scene with a sense of shock and horror, _he only impaled a wax servant._

"Threaten me and she dies. Move an inch and she dies," the pale man stated calmly, his voice betraying southern origins. "If you even _think_ of summoning your zombies, I'll slit her throat."

"Who in Hades' name are you? You can't do this to me," Nico said through clenched teeth, "You can't overpower me in my own domain…"

I don't know who Death Boy said that last part to; the poor guy sounded to be at his breaking point. His quick glance back at Will and I gave us a glimpse of his shifting eyes, his haggard expression.

"Nico di Angelo," the man said, giving the brown-eyed teen a hard look. "In no uncertain terms, you are my bitch right now."

"What do you want, then," the son of Hades demanded, "you want Bianca? I can't just- "

"I wasn't done talking," the man interjected, a ghost of annoyance in his tone. "I don't expect you to hand over the child. No… Too much could go wrong. In fact, I want you to take a few steps back. That's right," he said, repositioning the night-black blade over his hostage's throat. "Step. It's not hard. One foot after the other – there you go."

Nico's back came to a stop a foot or so in front of me. I stared nervously at the inky blackness of his t-shirt, afraid to look up and provoke someone.

"Now," the stranger said, his voice dripping with an infuriating amount of confidence, "Do you know how many famous magicians' souls are kept here? List them."

The shaggy-haired teen muttered his response. The sickly blond man still heard him. "You _don't know?_ " he repeated. Did he think Nico was lying or something? Christ, sometimes you just don't _know_ things. "Surely you know where Harry Houdini's soul resides," the stranger continued. "I don't doubt that you do."

"I do," Nico begrudgingly admitted.

"So resistant," the man remarked, his lip curling with distaste. "Why do you still hope to challenge my power over you? I have your sword. I have your sisters – both of them. Don't look so surprised; I'm in possession of Aziza's true name. I can command her to stop breathing, boy."

I could feel the little girl's tiny heartbeat against my chest. I imagined it stopping. _Oh. Oh no._ The child had been so quiet, so compliant. I looked into her wide, innocent eyes and she stared back at me curiously. How could she just die, right here in my arms?

"In fact," the stranger said, a cruel look flashing in his eyes. He muttered a chant. Glowing symbols – I recognized them as hieroglyphs – flitted through the air in front of him. And, just like that, I felt the baby's breath stop.

"The average person takes around three minutes to die of suffocation. A baby, I imagine, has even less time."

Panicked, the child of darkness twisted around to look at Aziza. I shook my head, trying to communicate that she really wasn't breathing. I struggled to remember my old CPR class –

"Don't do this," Nico blurted, fear resonating in his every syllable.

"It's not a question of what _I'll_ do. It's a question of what _you'll_ do. And you will do whatever I want."

"Stop it. _Stop,_ " the pale boy pleaded, his tone cracking with desperation.

"Only you can stop it, kid. I'm giving you a choice: Which sister do you want to die? Choose fast, Angelo, or I'll kill them both."

* * *

 **Nico's POV**

 _Thud-ud_

Nico's heartbeat had sped up, fuelled by fear and adrenaline, to a fever pitch in the past thirty seconds alone. Now it seized up, fit to stop. Time seemed to slow to a standstill, and the words _I'll kill them both_ were still ringing in his ears.

 _Thud-ud_

Choose fast. _Hazel. Bianca. Hazel. Bianca. My sisters. How can I – my_ sis _ters!_ The boy twisted his body to look at Bianca, found that this simple motion made him dizzy. But he couldn't pass out. His consciousness was cruelly welded to the moment. His eyes met those of the baby's, staring wide and oblivious at the scenery.

 _Thud-ud_

And suddenly, irrationally, he was disoriented. Bianca wasn't there. Why wasn't she there? There was only a baby. Where's Bianca? He looked at the girl holding the toddler, but his sister's eyes did not gaze back. He'd been certain she was here, her kind eyes and freckles, but reality evaporated that fantasy from this mind. _Where's my sister?_

The façade, the line of thought he'd worked so hard to keep up since rescuing her, had shattered.

 _Thud-ud_

Panic started to overtake the broken boy. He was alone. The old, familiar feelings of smallness and uncertainty crept back over him. Bianca had _left him_ and – and…

 _Thud-ud_

No. No, she left a long time ago. In Nico's chest, there was a feeling like cotton threads snapping. _It's been years._ For the fourth time, his hope of getting her back was gone. For the last time.

 _Thud-ud_

And he swung his head to the other side, to Hazel, to the monster slanted over her. _Hazel. She's here_. _I'm not alone._

He felt a tug in his heart. Her familiar features were peaceful and her presence, even centimeters from being shish-kebabed, felt like home to him. Not the home he'd had when his mother was still alive, not some idyllic sunshiny place full of laughter. A calm in a storm. A constant. Someplace emotionally _okay._ The thought of losing her, of letting his last light wink out, was terrifying. _I never should've sent her off by herself. She's all I have left. It's my fault she's in danger,_ the child of Hades thought, letting a silent scream loose in his exhale, barely able to think through the boiling caldron of panic in his skull.

Images – memories – flashed in the back of Nico's mind. The meals shared on the Argo. The happy sparkle in Hazel's eyes when she laughed. The silence shared over the time period they'd left and the one they didn't quite fit into. The few times when they could just sit together, peacefully, and feel safe.

All of that was _Hazel._

And the thought came not from his mind, but from his heart when he thought –

 _Thud-ud_

– _I can't let her die._

Words formed in the back of his throat, a terrible command. He glanced back at the toddler, to make sure, even though he knew. He saw a child. He saw a girl. He saw a still-stinging regret. His eyes failed to find Bianca. Her absence was keenly felt. Her absence, dark and oppressive, splintered his heart afresh. And some part of him was crushed, was amputated, for he knew that _his_ Bianca, the dear sister who practically raised him, was _gone._ Wholly. Absolutely.

 _But Hazel doesn't have to go. Not yet._

"Don't kill Hazel," he tried to shout. The whisper rattled, dry, through the husk that remained of the demigod. The words were grasping tendrils, urgently trying to hold onto the single, untainted bright spot left in his universe. With another wave of panic and a breaking voice, his screech rang out: " _Don't kill Hazel!_ "


End file.
